Cousin Ben
by Red Rose Inc
Summary: AU: When Luke takes a trip Rey must stay with her Aunt Leia. The only problem is her cousin Ben Solo who's increasingly odd behavior has begun to worry the entire family. Can Rey solve the mystery or will she be pulled so deeply into his secrete she becomes engulfed by it as well?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Dedicated to the antis. I love you antis. 😗

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Ben Solo. Who would have thought that a person's name could come to mean so much to her? Rey sighed softly while staring out the car window, watching as the world passed by in a blur. Lately Ben had become so distant and so short tempered and angry with everyone. It started when he entered high school. Leia and Han insisted that it was was merely teenage hormones and that this was just a phase, but Rey wasn't so sure about that.

'Keep away from me. I'm dangerous.'

"Rey, is everything alright?" Luke asked.

"Yeah. Everything is fine." She responded, trying to sound as chipper as she could manage to ward off her father's worries.

"Is it about spending your summer vacation with your aunt? I am sorry, Rey, but the team is going to the championship this year... as their teacher I must go with them." Her father sounded sincerely sympathetic and she almost felt bad for him that he felt so guilty.

"No. No it isn't about that. I was the one that decided to wait until next year to do fencing remember?"

"Well... when you put it that way." Luke paused and then briefly glanced at her. "So what is the matter?"

"I... was just thinking about Ben." Rey answered and Luke nodded in understanding.

"You're worried about him. We all are, but we can't help when all he does is push us away. I suspect that he is having trouble at school. Hux. Is that the boy's name? He was causing problems for Ben."

"Hux?"

"The local bully. He's been giving Ben a hard time."

"You really believe that a bully could make him act that way? Wouldn't he just... I don't know... hit him?" Rey questioned and Luke sighed softly.

"You would be surprised, Rey."

"He... he said something to me..." She began slowly and Luke raised a brow. "He told me to stay away from him... that he was dangerous."

"He threatened you?" Luke tensed up at the prospect of his daughter being in any danger. He was just about to turn the car around and cancel taking her to Leia's for the summer.

"No! No. It was more like he was trying to warn me away from something... to... to keep me safe. Ben wouldn't... he wouldn't threaten me."

"You're sure?"

"I am."

"Alright. If anything changes you can call me. I could have you stay with Poe and his parents if you need." Luke relaxed somewhat, but he was still concerned.

"No. I really do want to spend time with aunt Leia. We never see each other anymore."

"Always putting family first." He mused as they finally arrived at the familiar house from her childhood. It was so strange to see it again. "Tell Leia how sorry I am that I could not stop and say hello, but I'm running late as it is."

"Good luck." Rey replied and leaned over to briefly kiss her fathers cheek before she grabbed her bags and headed towards the house.

"Take care!" Luke called as he pulled off and her fate here seemed to be sealed. She was stuck one way or another.

Rey sighed quietly and glanced up at the house once more and recalled all the summers she spent here with her family. They were such wonderful and peaceful memories aside from how loud uncle Han and aunt Leia could get when they fought. Still they did love one another deep down and that was all that mattered. Marriage wasn't perfect after all. There would always be fights. Getting through the fights was what counted. Suddenly she heard a sound and a big, dark shadow jumped over the fence and Rey was knocked over, tackled to the ground by something huge and... her face was assaulted by a slobbery tongue.

"Chewie! Get off!" She laughed, shoving at the big hairball, but his excitement could hardly be contained. Only a dog could always be so happy to see an old friend. Humans were not quite as friendly.

Chewie jumped back and wagged his tail fiercely, leaping from paw to paw and waiting for her to get back to her feet. She ruffled the top of his head and sighed before having to turn and pick up her bags once more. The fur ball made her drop them.

Rey opened the gate for Chewie to urge him back inside as she made her way up the steps to the front door and just as she opened it to let Chewie in and step inside herself she slammed into something as solid as a brick wall. She had only been paying attention to Chewie making sure he was inside safely that she hardly noticed someone was making their exit.

Slowly she glanced up at the mass she ran into and was met with the stoic face of Ben Solo in front of her.

"Ben..."

"Rey..." A muscle in his jaw tensed as he spoke her name and she felt that perhaps he wasn't happy to see her here.

"Where is Aunt Leia?"

"Not here." His tone was short and she winced.

"Uncle Han...?"

"Not... here." These words were ground out with a particular anger. It seemed that Han had walked out on them again after another fight with Leia. Rey winced faintly. This was a bad time to be here. She felt as if she had just walked into a war zone. "It's just us now." 

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TO BE CONTINUED!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: I cannot stress the words Trigger Warning enough for things like drug use, self harm, sexual abuse, violence. I did say this got really dark. The story became a bit personal to me because I used some things from my past to write it even though I only intended it to be to spite antis. Ah well. Dedicated to the antis still. Have fun sweethearts.

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"It's just us now."

"Oh..." She averted her eyes from his cold expression and considered what she should say. It was so hard to speak to him anymore. Once upon a time

Ben had been cheerful and happy, but now he was cold and callous. Something had happened to him to change him.  
With a sigh he stepped aside and gestured for her to come inside. Though no words were exchanged and she hurried inside while Chewie charged in and bolted into the kitchen for dinner.

"Just... make yourself at home..." He shrugged as he grabbed his leather jacket from the rack at the door.

"You're leaving?" Rey set her bags down and observed him for a moment. That awkward stance he held led her to believe that he was hiding something.

"Yeah. School. Extra classes."

A lie. Such an obvious lie. Who would believe such a thing? She wondered if he told similar lies to his mother and if she believed those lies or if she knew that no matter what she could not change them and let him be. Leia was not ignorant after all. Han though... he likely had no idea what was going on with his son. He was never home.

She knew better than to even try and ask questions despite how much she wanted to. All she could do was watch as he walked out the door and left on his motorcycle... or... to be more precise it was Han's, but he had given it to Ben when he upgraded. Not really a gift, just something he didn't want anymore.

The door slammed and she jumped in surprise, turning to find Han had returned home. There was a pause and he raised a brow at her.

"What's the matter, kid?" Han asked her. "They still mad?"

"Oh... maybe Ben... aunt Leia isn't here."

"Huh." Han set his hands on his hips and thought about her words, a look crossed his face, perhaps a sense of guilt for walking out like he had. "Think they'd calm down after a week."

Rey fought against a wince at Han's words. A week was a long time. She wondered if Leia and Han would make up tonight or not. She hoped that they would and it would not be awkward the entire time she was here.

"All done Mr. Solo." Another voice stated and Rey recognized Poe when he stepped through the door and offered one of his ever charming smiles.

"Ah, Rey you remember Poe." Han waved a hand between the two of them.

"Good to see you again, Rey. How long has it been? Three years?" Poe asked as he wiped his greasy hands with an old cloth. It seemed the two had been working on cars again.

"Yes. Nearly that. How have you been, Poe?" Rey was trying to be polite, but she found herself a little shaken by Ben's attitude and lie before he had left. She was worried.

"Working with Mr. Solo on the Falcon."

Ah, of course. The Falcon. Han's prized race car. He loved that thing more than life itself it seemed sometimes.

"She's looking good for her age." Han acknowledged. "Hm. Leia should be home any minute. I think we should order in so she doesn't have to cook. Those meetings take a lot out of her. What do you think Poe? Want to stay for dinner?"

"I'd love to Mr. Solo." Poe's smile appeared again, probably the type that would make a girl faint, but Rey couldn't exactly bring herself to be attracted to him.

"Great. You two... ehh..." Han trailed off and waved a hand between the two of them and Rey merely smiled as she realized what Han was attempting to do. It was a shame that he did not know about Poe and Finn's relationship... he might be disappointed, considering he'd been trying to set them up for some time now.

The time seemed to go by quickly and Leia returned home. There was a momentary stand off between husband and wife but this quickly passed for the sake of their guests and they settled down to the dinner Han had ordered. Not long after that the door opened and Ben returned, but he went straight to his room and was gone for some time.

They were halfway through dinner when he actually came down to join them, having changed his clothes and showered before hand. She wondered what it was that he had been doing at school. What extra classes could have possibly have? Sports of some sort? He looked exhausted. Maybe he hadn't lied.

"So nice of you to join us, Ben." Leia acknowledged his presence with a soft smile, trying to be gentle with his temperament.

He made a gruff sound in answer, hunching over the table to conceal his expression and Rey eyed him carefully, searching for any sign of anything odd or unusual. Han had pressed his lips together in a thin line, clearly on edge with Ben's attitude lately.

"Finn said you weren't at school today. I thought you had Summer classes?" Poe started and there was a sudden silence, any polite conversation out the window. It was not on purpose.

Poe and Ben had been friends for some time and it was only asked of friendly concern, but she could see Ben's shoulder's tensing and she knew it was a wrong question to ask.

He had lied.

"Finn doesn't know what he's talking about. How would he? He was at practice. Mr. Snoke had some things..." His voice trailed and he sighed. "to talk about."

"Mr. Snoke... must be a good teacher if you prefer spending all your time with him over your family." Han stated and Leia sighed, placing her glass down with a little more force than needed.

"How was your last week of school, Ben?" Leia thankfully changed the subject.

Ben merely shrugged, not really having an answer for her and Leia frowned in response, but she let it go. For the sake of a peaceful dinner.

"Anyway... you should have seen Poe tonight." Han began. "This kid is a great driver. I think he's gonna go far. Since I'm getting too old to do this on my own I'm thinking about hiring him permanently."

Ben suddenly slammed down his own glass and shoved the chair back to leave immediately. Not having a single word as he stomped up the stairs and slammed the door to his room. Han glanced up, completely clueless and Leia pressed a hand against her temple, trying to sooth away the oncoming headache.

The dinner ended on a down note and Poe was left in a very awkward situation as Han showed him out. Leia apologized profusely and went upstairs to rest as she had work in the morning and Rey was left in her own thought train. She carefully made her way up the stairs and paused at Ben's door. She wondered what he was doing now. If he was asleep or not.

She imagined what it was like to have one's father say something like that in front of him. She knew that Ben loved cars just as much as his father and there Han had said he was going to choose Poe to be his successor. Had Han really not known how hurtful that comment was? He may be dense at times, but he was not purposely hurtful.

Though she wanted to ask if he was alright she did not bother to knock on his door and intrude as his temper very well may be at it's peak.  
That night everyone went to bed early. It was not until sometime late in the night she woke to a disturbance. She could not be quite sure of what it was, but it was enough to get her out of bed and into the hallway. It was mostly dark save for the light coming from downstairs. Curiosity got the best of her and she snuck down the stairs as quietly as she could manage. It seemed the light came from the laundry room and she wondered who thought doing laundry this late at night was acceptable?

When she turned the corner she found the laundry room with the light on, but it was empty. Nobody was in here it seemed. Though it hardly made sense. She stood silently for a moment or two before turning about to leave and suddenly there was a faint buzzing and she took notice of the phone setting on top of the dryer. It wasn't hers. It wasn't her business, but she had only one suspect as to who was responsible and she was worried about him so she grabbed his phone and clicked it on.

There was a text message there. It was from his teacher. Snoke. What would a teacher be doing calling his student at three in the morning? She opened the message.

 _'You preformed well tonight. Keep it up and nobody will find out about your failed classes.'_

Failed classes. Ben was failing his classes? She had never heard Leia or Han mention that. So that only meant that for some reason Snoke was helping  
Ben hide the fact that he failed. Rey wanted to think that it was some random act of kindness. That Snoke was helping Ben with extra classes, but if that were the case why had he never confided in her? He always told her everything when they were younger.

"What are you doing?" The harsh voice cut through her thoughts and she whirled around to come face to face with him. He reached out and flicked the light off suddenly, grabbed his phone from her hands and pressing her back into the dryer, effectively trapping her.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Ben..."

"You're sorry?"

"I was worried about you... the way you've been acting..." In the barely lit room she reached out and set her hands against his chest to try and put a little space between them, but he did not budge. "Snoke... is he-"

"Shut your mouth." His words cut hers off and he slowly brought his hand up and grabbed her by the throat, lightly, not choking, but the threat was there. "What did you see?"

"Nothing... just one message... what... did you do for him...?" Rey risked asking again even though he did not seem to want to hear it.

"Don't concern yourself with that." He lightly trailed his fingers along her throat watching them as they moved over her soft skin with a particular interest. She reached up and grabbed his forearm to halt his motion, but it seemed to do little to dissuade him.

"What are you doing?" In the dim light of the room she made an effort to search his eyes and was shocked by what she found. "Are you high?"

"Does it matter so much?" After a moment of pushing boundaries by placing his hand on her like that he drew away from her and flicked the light back on. It was just enough for her to watch as he picked up his dirty clothes and toss them into the washer, enough to notice the blood on his clothing. Boxers in particular. She wondered how he managed that. "Get out. Go to bed."

"Are you hurt?" She quickly reached for his arm again and he paused to give her a cold glare in response. "I just want to help."

"Can you help me forget?" His question left her reeling.

"What?"

"Forget it." He closed the washer lid with a bang and turned it on, the dull hum was actually a blessing because silence at this moment would be too much.

"No! If I can do something to help you... I will. You know I love you, Ben." Rey somehow knew she shouldn't have said it the moment it left her mouth, but it had and he took a step closer to her and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her forward.

"You love me, huh?" He stepped forward and backed her into the wall this time and Rey was suddenly aware of how small she felt before him.

"I do." She responded, trying not to feel intimidated. This was Ben after all. He wasn't going to hurt her. Her thoughts were immediately tossed out the window into a jumble when he jerked her wrist forward and placed it against his stomach before he slid it down, but she caught on and quickly drew back from him, brought her other hand up and slapped him hard across the face before making a run for the door, going straight to her room then slamming and locking the door behind her.

The rest of the night went by terribly long and Rey could hardly make sense of what happened or of what he could have possibly been thinking to think that what he had done was even remotely acceptable. Of course he wasn't thinking. That was the answer. His eyes made it clear just how high he was and so she suspected that logical thought was beyond him at that time. She hoped that in the morning he would just forget.

When the morning came Rey realized she had hardly slept and she found herself not sure if she could bare to open her door, but she knew she had to. She inhaled sharply when she did finally work up the courage to open it because Ben was sitting there against the wall. Had he been out here all night. He lifted his gaze towards hers and lightly clenched his fists over his knees that were pulled up to his chest.

"I'm sorry..." The first words came out in a rush and he looked as he if was going to try and make some half-assed explanation for his actions, but she didn't want to hear whatever he had to say.

"Just don't." Rey didn't have any other words and instead she walked away from him again, heading downstairs to where Leia was cooking breakfast and Han was reading the paper. It seemed like a proper family for once. If one didn't count what happened last night. Ben followed behind her and glanced from her to his parents. He was waiting. Watching to see if she was going to tell them about last night.

"Rey, everything okay?" Leia asked, seeming to sense the discomfort. Rey glanced at Ben and watched the way his shoulder's slumped down low as if he had accepted defeat.

"Everything's fine." Rey put on a false smile.

"Sit down. Let's have a proper breakfast together." Leia said in the kindest tone she could muster up, trying to keep the peace between them all.

The breakfast was luckily uneventful and soon Leia left for work and Han also left and then Rey found herself alone with Ben who had not stopped staring at her the entire time. She suspected he might have been trying to explain away had she not silenced him earlier and without an explanation she wasn't sure what to make of what he had done. Was it only a result of the drugs?

"What were you doing?" She finally gave in and decided to ask. What if she had been wrong? What if he hadn't been taking things in the direction she thought he had tried last night. It was much more believable to think she misunderstood than accept that he could have had darker intentions.

He shrugged and pushed some some food around his plate, having not eaten a single bite of it with his appetite gone. "Why didn't you tell them about the message?"

"Should I have?"

"No." He shoved himself back in his chair and stood from the table to take his plate to the sink where he could pour the uneaten and now cold breakfast down the drain to be ground up in the garbage disposal.

"I thought you would be more worried I would tell them about what you tried to do." Rey stated and he ceased all movement and glanced at her over his shoulder.

"What is it I tried to do?" Ben questioned her, carefully washing the plate and then setting it up to dry before he turned to face her and leaned against the counter.

"I'm not stupid, Ben. You were trying to get me to-..." She found that she didn't want to say it out loud. It was too crude to use the words. "Don't you have a girlfriend to help you with that?"

His lips twitched upwards for a second in a mock smile, but it disappeared just as soon as it came and his face was as stony and cold as ever. She had never been afraid of him before, but now she felt that fear crawling up on her once again.

"You think he would let me?" As soon as he said it his expression changed and he realized he already said too much so he turned around to set his hands against the counter and stare out the window rather than look at her.

"Who's he?" Rey asked, but he didn't seem inclined to answer her. "Snoke...?"

His shoulders rose and tensed considerably as he turned around yet again and held a finger up as if it were a warning in and of itself.  
"Don't."

"You wouldn't have reacted like that if I wasn't right..." She insisted and he advanced on her leaving her to quickly get up from the chair to keep the table between them because she had no idea what he was going to do. He stopped on the other side and waited for her to move, he inched to the left and she moved a bit to keep the barrier between them.

"Rey..." He clenched a fist and tried to move the other way, but she also moved and it proved pointless. An endless dance that was neither moving forwards nor backwards.

"What are you doing? Are you... you're not going to try what you did last night?"

"Stop talking about that!" Ben snapped, jaw tensing as he glanced at the table and considering jumping it if he needed.

"Don't you dare." She called him out before he even did it and he glanced up at her. "Why did you do it?!"

"Because you like me!"

Rey froze and narrowed her eyes at him. Was that really what he thought? Did the drugs have nothing to do with his actions? " _Like_ you? You don't know what you're talking about."

"Give me a break." He took another step only to be immediately countered. "You liked me then... you still like me now... you were the one that wanted to marry me remember?"

"We were children! It hardly counts. You realize children don't quite understand the implications, Ben." Rey knew what she said when she was a child, but neither really understood what it really meant and their parents just laughed it off as a childish ignorance that would pass and it had! It had hadn't it? "You're my cousin..."

"You don't like that?" He asked, trying again to step around the table, but she was still aware of his actions and made to take another step as well.  
"Back off."

"What do you think I'm going to do to you, Rey?"

That question threw her. What did she think he was going to do? There was no way that her Ben was going to do anything to her or put his hands on her. He wasn't like that. She wasn't sure why she was so worried. Perhaps last night had really startled her on top of all his other odd behaviors.  
Seeing her resolve lessen he stepped around the table and stopped in front of her, holding his hands up as a testament to his intentions.

"I'm sorry I scared you." He stated softly, honestly and Rey felt herself relax considerably. She hadn't realized she had become so tense. He reached over and took her plate for her to return to the sink and finish the dishes.

It was hard to try and put all of this together. She wanted to know just what was going on with him and why he was acting the way he had. Why he had mentioned something so childish in defense of last night. Was it possible his feelings had never changed? Did he still feel the way they had in childhood?

Most importantly did she? She thought she didn't, but if she was honest every now and then a feeling would surface. She tried to chalk it off as having grown up with him. That it was just safer and more comfortable with him. That it didn't mean anything and if she found a nice guy and got to know him she would feel the same. What if it wasn't? What if what she felt for Ben was really like he was suggesting?

Anything else she might have said was cut off when his phone went off and he checked it briefly before he headed towards the door to grab his jacket. He was leaving again. She wondered if it was Snoke that had called him, but there was nothing she could do to change that.

What was it he was doing for Snoke that had him so caught up? So changed. His shift in personality had to do with whatever drugs he was taking.  
There was no doubt about that. She wanted to address it with him. Question him, but she knew better than to do that because he might lose his fragile temper with her. Even if he wouldn't physically hurt her she had no desire to get into a shouting match with him.

For the rest of the day she found herself wandering around the house alone and wondering what she should do. She tried watching a movie and Chewie tried to cheer her up, keep her company, but her thoughts had her too wrapped up with concern to be even remotely cheered up and Chewie whined softly and laid his head at her feet.

Eventually Han and Leia returned home and it got late and she decided to go to bed, but Ben had not come home and she hoped that he was alright. Leia tried to tell her and insist that even though he stayed out late Ben always came home. She waited up late into the night, but eventually exhaustion won out.

When she awoke to a familiar noise downstairs she knew that he had come home and once again she got up and left her room to head downstairs and find him in the laundry room washing bloodied clothing.

"Ben..." She began carefully and he stopped a moment and gave her a brief glance, but didn't linger and proceeded to stuff his clothes into the washer.

He had been struggling to get the blood stains out. "Do your parents know...?"

"Why would they?" He asked and glanced at the time on his phone. It was later than he'd have liked. Rey took a step closer to him, noticing the odd way he was hunched over. It led her to believe that something was off. Her close proximity startled him and he abruptly took a step back from her. It let her catch of glimpse of his face. "Stay away from me."

"But..." Her voice trailed in shock and she took in the damage that had been done to his face. He was bruised and blooded. His eye was swollen, discolored with a deep angry purplish, black bruise and he had a split lip. "What have you been getting yourself into?"

Of course just as she expected he decided not to answer her and went back to scrubbing at a stain in his shirt. For a moment she was silent and took the shirt from his hands and the rag and scrubbed at the stain for him. He shouldn't have to do that now. Not when he was clearly hurting so badly.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because you're hurt."

"You're not going to be little miss goody two shoes and turn me in?" He asked, shifting to lean against the wall for some support.

"I should."

"But you're not?"

"No." She answered and frowned at the blood stains. "At least tell me what happened."

"Hux is an asshole." He shrugged it off. "If you think this is bad you should see him."

Time ticked by slowly, almost in slow motion it seemed, but eventually she got most of it out and placed the shirt into the washer where it could finish the cleaning process. "Do you do this every night?"

"Most." His eyes searched hers carefully, waiting for her to say something, but this time it was her that ignored any further response. He brought a hand up to his mouth and slowly brushed it against his mouth, lightly pressing at the cut. "Thank you..."

"A thank you?" She asked, genuinely surprise. She hadn't thought that he would actually say something like that to her. Her eyes lowered to his other hand, clenching and unclenching at his side. He was tense. From drugs or maybe from the fight. Perhaps even pain. "Why would you let someone bully you?"

"It's... more complicated than that."

"Does it have to do with you being high all the time?" It was the question that silence him and his silence gave her all the answer she needed. "Do you have to resort to drugs...? Can't you stop?"

"I can't stop."

"Why...?"

"It helps me relax. I have to. Alright?" He sighed and pushed himself off the wall when the washer stopped and gathered his clothes from there to switch them to the dryer. "Why does this even matter to you?"

"Would you let me do drugs?" Rey asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No." Ben paused and sputtered. He had just answered his own question. "Alright. You made your point."

"Would you let me take care of you at least?"

He hesitated a moment. "Yeah... I guess..."

It was easier than she thought it would be but she knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth and stepped into the kitchen to grab a rag and some ice. He would need to get the swelling down. She turned and found him with his clothes tucked over his arm, he nodded towards the stairs and she followed him up where he went straight to his room and she stopped there at his door. She hadn't been in his room since they were children.

He tossed his clothes into an open drawer, opened a window, grabbed a pack off his desk and then sat down on the bed. He grabbed cigarette from the pack and lit it up.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" He asked around the cigarette, pausing to inhale the addicting smoke deep within his lungs. Rey knew that she really couldn't say or do anything about it so she stepped into his room. "Close the door behind you. If the old man catches me smoking he'll throw a fit."

"What about your mom?" She questioned as she closed the door and she heard him snort in response.

"I don't even want to think about that."

"Worse?" She made her way to his side and glanced at the brusing and swelling around his eye. It could be worse. He was lucky it hadn't swollen shut. There'd be no talking himself out of something so obvious. She pressed the ice against it and his lips turned downwards into a frown.

"Much."

"Are you in a lot of pain?"

"Not really. I'm high enough." He tilted his chin up and smiled around the cigarette as if he were proud of that fact.

She tsk'd at him and brought the ice away for a second to glance at his eye. It seemed to be helping. She placed it back and wondered when it had come to this. The witty and sensitive little boy had turned into a short tempered drug addict.

His room was so empty and dull. Not a single picture or poster on the walls. Just a dark grey colored paint. He had few personal items scattered about, but his room was relatively clean which was surprising. She had almost expected it to be a mess with posters lining the walls, but it was nothing like that. On his desk the only picture was a picture of the two of them with their grandfather.

Their grandfather. He had been thrown into prison for having ties with a mafia like organization and though he had enough power to arrange things for him were quite comfortable it was doubtful they would ever see him again, but she remembered him fondly. Deep down he was a good man despite the mistakes.

A sound interrupted her thoughts and at first Rey wasn't sure what the bump from the other room was and then another sound followed and she grimaced. That was distinctly Han and Leia.

"Oh no... please tell me that is not what I think it is..." She pleaded, hoping beyond hope she didn't have to listen to that throughout the night.

Ben grabbed the cigarette between two fingers and leaned back a bit to double check, before he glanced back at her.

"Yup. It's exactly what you think it is." He stood up and picked up a CD to place into the player and turned it up. "Just have to deal with it. This always happens after a big fight. It's like they fight on purpose just so... well... you get the point, Rey."

Avenged Sevenfold's Bat Country filled the room and she sighed. Of course. What other band would she expect him to listen to? It suited his personality she supposed. He was about as wild as the music he listened to. He returned to his bed and collapsed backwards onto it to stare up at the ceiling as he took another drag.

"This is more embarrassing than having Unkar stare me down at work..." Taking on the job at the restaurant back in her town during the summer had been difficult, especially with a creepy boss like Unkar, but the money had been nice. Especially the tips she sometimes got. Being a waitress was not actually an easy job. You were on your feet all day.

"The fucking Russian?" Ben asked, glancing over at her.

"Language." She scolded him and held out the ice to him, he took it, but he rolled his eyes her her trying to correct him.

"What are you five?" He leaned further against the bed with a sigh and held the ice against his eye.

His shirt rode up and she got a good view of the deep bruising all the way across his stomach as if maybe someone struck him with something. Perhaps a baseball bat, but whatever it had been it had been something long enough to go all the way across. She knew better than to ask him about it.

"Do you even remember when we were that young?"

"Mmhmm." He nodded to confirm he did.

"Like? You're going to have to prove your stoner brain can even think that far back."

"Well... let's see... we took a family vacation up to the cabins by the lake and-"

"NO!" Rey quickly stopped him then and there because she knew exactly which memory he was bringing up again.

"AND you said what was it... ahhh. 'I love Ben. When I get older I want to marry him'."

"Oh! I hate you!" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. Why did he have to bring up something embarrassing like that all the time?

"You love me." He insisted and closed his eyes, but then there was a sliver of doubt within him and he added onto his words. "Right?"

"You know I love you." She felt like she needed to make sure he knew something like that. He was in a difficult place and he needed all the support he could get even if he wouldn't admit to it. "And no I don't want to marry you."

Ben. She mused. She found herself a bit afraid. Afraid, because... she was worried if she did still like Ben Solo. It would be wrong of her. Taboo. A line that should never be crossed, but... sometimes she had these thoughts.

"Mmm." He shifted on the bed.

"I know we haven't seen each other in years, but you do remember we're cousins, right?" It was almost a joke, but the other night... that hadn't faded and she was uncertain about his intentions. It was possible he had just been high out of his mind... or sometimes he just had that same feeling.

"Mhm."

"And you don't care...? It was only because you were high right?" When there was silence from him she bit her lip nervously. "Ben...? Come on..."

"What? What do you want me to say?" He asked. "I'm tired, alright."

"Be honest..."

"You want me to be honest? I wish we could go back to being kids again. Back at the lake. With Uncle Luke and grandfather... where I didn't feel like I had the weight of the entire fucking world on my back. I wish it could go back to being easy." He sighed. "Being an adult is too hard... and the other night I just... it was... just that... when I had you all alone... against the wall... I felt in control of something for once in my life... I thought it might make me feel something else... to know what it was like to be the one in control for once."  
"You're not going to tell me what's really going on are you?" She asked and he slowly shook his head. "Do you think I won't understand?"

"I don't know what you would think." He inhaled sharply and sat up, putting the cigarette out to grab his phone the second he heard it buzz. If it wasn't something that she knew was trouble she might be impressed with his speed. It was a shame he didn't answer his parents calls that quickly. "I'm here."

He shoved himself from the bed and turned the music down a bit in order to hear the other side of the call. In his rush he knocked a few CDs and homework folders off his dresser, but he seemed not to notice.

"No. No. I-" There was a pause and he shook his head. "I can be there... just... not until later... No! No... there's no need. I can... I can handle it."

Rey glanced at the mess on the floor and didn't want him to have to bend over and pick those up with the shape he was in so she gathered the CDs and folders up for him. Several Avenged Sevenfold CDs, some Breaking Benjamin and school folders and to top it all off a hidden porn dvd among them. Typical. As she stood with them a pamphlet slipped out and she returned the items to the dresser and returned to pick up the pamphlet.

She turned her attention to the pamphlet and was nearly ready to return it when it caught her attention that it was from a clinic. What was more was it was an STD prevention pamphlet. She stood up and then she glanced up at him and realized he had turned and was looking right at her. The shocked look of horror that filled his face gave away the exact reason he had this. He had gotten into trouble.

"I'll call you back..." He hung up and tossed the phone onto his bed and she realized that now she was in trouble.

"You got an STI?" She knew that wasn't the way out of this. That she made a hole and she should stop digging.

"Had, Rey. Had." Ben quickly stepped forward and snatched it from her hands to rip it in half, why he hadn't done it sooner was beyond him. "I'm clean now, alright. I took the medication and I'm clean. You honestly think I'd let you anywhere near me if I wasn't?"

"I..." Rey hesitated, but she was sure he wasn't going to lie about this at least. It was a really strange and awkward thing to think about Ben having sex with some strange girl. She wondered who she was. What she looked like. "I thought you didn't have a girlfriend?"

"I don't."

"So you broke up. Are you upset over the breakup?" She could maybe attribute that to some of his behavior on top of drugs.

"I didn't-..." He cut himself off and just turned around to approach his bed, but he didn't sit down. Instead he stood there chewing on his thumb uneasily. And all at once his earlier words hit her and she pressed a hand over her mouth.

"Is it a guy?" That would completely explain why Ben would be hiding something like this. His father would not take kindly to finding out that information. He was very old fashioned. She grimaced as her thoughts were filled with Ben having sex with a man. Not much better than her previous thoughts.

He turned around suddenly and got dangerously close to her. "You don't know what you're talking about. Stay out of it! And just... just get out, Rey!"

Rey knew full well when it was time to leave and she quickly left his room, but now she had all these thoughts and implications in her head. The late nights out, the bruises and talking about how he felt out of control. Was Ben trapped in some sort of abusive relationship? Was it with that bully Hux? That would explain a lot.

The door slammed behind her and she jumped slightly, surprised, but she hurried to her room and did her best to try and get some sleep that night, but after the things she had learned sleep did not come to her. The moment it hit she was making a phone call of her own to the one person she could really trust.

"Hello...?" The groggy tone came through.

"Finn...? I need help..."

These were the only words she needed to say and immediately her knight in shining armor arrived at her door, disheveled, ready for the rescue. Finn had been her best friend when they were younger. Had been friends with Ben once even, but that had ended once Ben had become distant from them all.

"What's wrong, Rey? You sounded really upset." Finn questioned, adjusting his -Poe's she recognized it- jacket to try and appear more together.

"I need help with Ben." She replied and then Finn's brow drew together in confusion.

"Ben? What did he do?"

"He's in trouble. And I need you to help me follow him."

"Rey... Ben... has been in trouble for awhile." Finn answered, frowning. "What changed?"

"I found something... in his room..." Rey carefully stated, but for his privacy she would not go into detail. She would not ever let someone know something like that. "I think... he's in an abusive relationship... he came home the other night... he was so bruised."

"He fights with Hux..." Finn rationalized.

"I... found other things, Finn. I really think we need to follow him."

Finn sighed and nodded. "Alright, alright. I'll help you."

"Great. Let's go. We'll pull the car around and wait for him to leave." Rey said and grabbed Finn by the hand to drag him towards the car and Finn rolled his eyes, but smiled in amusement as he recalled the years she hated any hand holding at all. It seemed there was an exception. That exception had to do with her cousin. What else did he expect?

Finn went around his car and got in, pulling around the corner where they could not be seen when Ben left the house. If that guy were to see them then the game was up and he'd probably rip them apart.

"Rey... I know how much you care about him... and that you were really close when you were younger, but... Ben is... not the same person anymore. The Ben you knew is gone." Finn tried carefully. He didn't want her to get her hopes up.

"No. Finn... something has happened I know it. He's in there underneath all that somewhere. I just need to help him." Rey sighed and watched the house with inpatients. "Is there anyone at school that would know something? Friends? Does he hang out with a bad crowd?"

"Rey... Ben... doesn't have any friends. None. Nobody at school likes him." Finn wasn't about to go into house merciless Hux was. He heard Rey's sigh at his words.

"I should have... tried to talk my father into staying... it's when we moved that we became distant."

"You can't blame yourself." Finn insisted and that was when she glanced away and decided to change the subject to the matter at hand.

"We need to be careful that he doesn't see us. He warned me to stay away from him."

"He threatened you?"

"NO! Why does everyone keep asking that?" Rey sighed yet again and placed a hand over her eyes. Why did they all think the worst of him? "Finn I know something is wrong."

"Alright. I believe you Rey. I do." Finn glanced up then. "Well... you were right about him leaving at the same time. Let's give it a moment..."

Now was the hardest part. To follow him without him noticing. If he noticed she didn't even want to think about how he would react. He had already been very upset with her last night for finding out what she did. It didn't matter if he never forgave her. If she could help him out of this mess that would be enough.

Their mission was going smoothly it seemed, because he had not noticed them following him and led them straight to the school. It was a mystery what he was doing here. Rey and Finn gave one another a surprised glance that he would show up here of all places.

"You stay with the car." Rey insisted as they pulled around the school to make sure he did not notice them.

"Are you sure that's safe? If he's really in trouble you'll need back up-"

Rey held up her phone. "I'll send you a message if I need back up, Finn. Don't worry."

She got out of the car and knew that Finn wasn't exactly happy with her choice, but he trusted her enough to do what she needed to do. She had never been to the high school here and so she found herself intimidated by it and wondered how she was going to find Ben once she was inside.

The school was clean for the most part. Well tended. Of course Leia would not send her son to just any school so she supposed she should not be surprised. Though this school was so large she worried she would not be able to find him before he left. The halls were so long, endless it seemed.

Those fears were cut short when she noticed one single classroom door partially open. No other door was open so that could only mean this classroom was in use when it shouldn't be. Rey slowly approached the classroom door and then there at the edge of it she leaned against the wall and peaked inside.

A gasp left her and she quickly pressed a hand over her mouth to try and muffle out the sound so she was not discovered. What she say was not what she had been expecting. Inside the room a much older man had Ben pressed against a desk, uncomfortably close against his back. It hit her all at once that was the reason for the bruising across his stomach. This man. This person had put him in this position before.

"I have a job for you, but first..." The man pressed his hips forward into Ben suggestively. "tell me exactly how the girl found out about your little indiscretion..."

"She knows nothing..." Ben insisted, glancing back over his shoulder until the man pressed a hand hard between his shoulder blades. "Snoke... she has no idea it was you..."

Snoke. This was Snoke? Rey wasn't sure what to do. She could not confront them. Not now. It would be too dangerous, but... she grabbed her phone and held it to the door and took a picture. If she could prove what Snoke was doing that would be much better.

"This girl... your cousin... she was in your room... why?" Snoke lips were curled into a cold sneer as he spoke. "Did you fuck her, Ben?"

"No!" He tried to straighten up, but Snoke pressed down harder.

"But you want to don't you?" Snoke trailed his hand down Ben's back slowly and stopped just at his pants and started to tug them downwards. "Why don't you bring her to me?"

"No."

"No?" Snoke repeated dangerously.

"She's only sixteen... leave my family out of this. That was the deal. You leave them out."

"I seem to recall you being the same age when we made our little deal, but I suppose you are right." Snoke took a step back and Ben was able to straighten up and turn around. "Get on your knees."

"What...?" Ben's face turned white as a sheet.

"I said. Get. On. Your. Knees. Ben... you wouldn't want your mother to find out. If this gets out... that her son is letting his teacher fuck him for grades and to keep his dirty little drug secrete her career would be ruined... and you'd be even more of a joke than you are now. Your family would fall apart and it would be all your fault. You think it's bad now you know how prison would be. You're eighteen after all. You would be tried as an adult."

"Please..." Ben begged, but he knew deep down it was hopeless.

"I could always ask your cousin if she wants to take your place." Snoke stated and Ben slowly got down on one knee and then the other while Snoke came to stand in front of him and unbuckle his belt. "That's my good boy."

Rey inhaled sharply. What was she going to do? She couldn't let that happen to him. She had to think fast. She looked around the hallway and found nothing in particular useful and then her eyes fell upon the red box on the wall.

Fire alarm.

She grabbed the lever and pulled down and it seemed as if all hell broke lose. The alarms let off a high pitched screeching and she knew that she had to move or risk being caught. She quickly ducked around the corner and held her breath.

Snoke stormed out of the classroom and glanced down the hallway, searching. Rey swallowed with difficulty and hoped that he would not turn down this corner. Her prayers were answered when he went down the opposite way. Shortly after Ben stepped out of the class room and hurried off down the hall to leave as well.

The moment she was clear she ran. She swore she had never run so fast in her life, but when she reached the car Finn got out, noticing her distress.

"Rey?! What happened?!" Finn asked her.

She found herself unable to answer, she continued towards him and threw herself into Finn's arms and the moment she was in his embrace the sobs broke from her.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Well this took longer than I wanted, but life happened. So this story has evolved yet again and has really turned into such a concept I want to do proper justice to and hence has taken me longer to put much more effort into.

Super fan Reylo: I have no idea what you are on about. There is no kylux or finnrey in this fanfic. You're either a troll or you don't know how to read English well enough to understand it or you skimmed the story.

* * *

The ride home Finn could not get an answer out of her other than that Ben was indeed trapped in an abusive relationship. He had to accept that answer. Promised they would figure it out as he dropped her off at home.

Rey slowly entered the house, ignoring both Leia and Han she hurried upstairs and went straight to the bathroom where she could shower and try and clear her head. She turned the water on and after stripping stepped inside. Here she could safely cry to herself. Even though she knew she was not the one that should be crying.

Her strong and powerful Ben reduced to this under the blackmail of someone who was supposed to support him. It hurt her to know that he had been going through this sort of abuse for years and she had not known. She had not helped him. He had needed her. He had needed his family and nobody had known it.

Here and now she vowed she was going to make up for it all. She was going to help him. She might not have been able to stop it, but she was going to save him now. With that resolve she pulled herself together and exited the shower to dress and prepare to face the outside again. Now that she had her moment she would talk to Finn and Poe. Get their advice.

The moment she opened the bathroom door she ran right into Ben. He looked genuinely surprised to see her. Their last interaction had not been pleasant after all.

"I need to..." He waved towards the bathroom to indicate he wanted to get cleaned up and she took a step out of his way. "I... I'm sorry... Rey... I overreacted... I just... didn't want anybody to know... it's... embarrassing..."

"I understand..."

"Did... you have fun with Finn?"

"Can I talk to you when you're finished?" She asked and he looked startled again.

"Yeah. I'll be quick."

True to his word he showered quick and then awkwardly went to his room with her where they could speak privately. He was worried that she was going to bring up telling his parents. She could tell and then who knew what his parents would do to him. He closed the door carefully and then glanced at her.

"Are you-"

"I'm not going to tell..." She assured him right away and he nodded slowly. "I... want to go to the lake. The four of us. Finn, Poe... like old times."

"You... want me to take you with Finn and Poe?" He asked and sat down carefully on his bed before nodding. "I'll try... if I don't get stuck with extra classes."

"No. You're going to go with. I'm not leaving you a choice."

"Uhh..." Ben rubbed the back of his head. "Rey if I have to work with Mr. Snoke I-"

"I'm not letting you work with him." Rey knew she wasn't holding her cards very close to her chest, but she absolutely would not let him spend another day with that person.

His eyes narrowed and he slowly stood up. "Why? Rey... it was you... you were there... and you... how much did you hear?"

"Enough..."

"You need to keep your mouth shut about it!" He snapped. "Why do you... why do you keep getting involved in my business!?"

"I haven't told anyone." Rey risked taking a step closer to let him know that she was not going to be intimidated. "But I also can't just let you be manipulated and abused."

"He's not..."

"He is."

"Rey..." He dropped onto his bed and groaned in exasperation. A sense of dread and shame washed over him. "It was a deal... it didn't... start out that way... I never agreed to... I was just... supposed to deliver a package one time and he would keep my grades from my parents and then... then he altered the deal and I..."

"You need to tell your parents."

"What would that help?! I'll go to prison. Do you get that? Do you understand? I ran a package of drugs for him to Hux. Hux is a dealer. After that... he just... kept making me run them and then he..." Ben held a hand over his mouth. "Rey... if you tell them my mom could lose everything..."

"He manipulated you... I... you shouldn't get in trouble..."

"And then what? He finds out I narked on him and then he gets out in a year to come kill me? Or with my luck he won't even go to jail... he'll just get probation. Or worse my family. He could hurt my family. Just... don't... tell anyone."

Rey bit her lip and considered his words. It was true. The law was not just. The victims often did not receive what they deserved and the bad guys only got a slap on the wrist, but she couldn't just accept that he would have to live his life like that.

"There has to be some way out."

"Yeah, maybe if I finally worked up the courage to kill myself." He muttered as he folded his hands together between his knees and stared at them.

"Ben..."

"I'm so fucked!" He stood up and she quickly backed up and stayed out of the way as he kicked the chair at his desk across the room and splintered it against the wall. The wood didn't stand a chance against his temper.

Rey winced as he threw a lamp across the room and then proceeded to put his fist through the wall. She was amazed that neither Han nor Leia came running, but she guessed that they were used to this sort of thing by now. She waited for him to calm down, at least a little, because approaching him in that state seemed useless.

"Ben, calm down please?" It felt like a feeble request, but he took a step back , breathing heavily from all it took out of him until he was exhausted from the destruction. He placed his hands against the desk and leaned forward a little with a low exhale.

"Do you think I'm disgusting...?"

She approached him and slid her arms around him and rested her cheek against his back. It was meant to comfort him, but all he did was tense up and she realized that approaching him from behind was a bad idea all things considered.

"I don't think you're disgusting." She felt his pain like it was her own. He had been hurt so badly and nobody had known about it. He had to go through it all alone. Not only had his body been hurt, but deep down in his soul he was wounded. A part of it had been murdered brutally.

"You still want to touch me?" He asked, lowering his hands to place them on hers that were still around him. She understood exactly what he meant even without him having to say exactly what he felt.

"You're not disgusting to me. I promise. You're not dirty. I don't see you differently." She didn't expect him to turn around and wrap his arms around her tightly. Those words must have been the ones he had been desperately waiting to hear for a very long time.

"Please stay with me."

His request sounded quiet and pathetic, pleading. She made the decision that she would stay with him. He reluctantly released her so that she could sit down on the bed and he joined her. He kicked his boots off and shifted back onto the bed. A shuddery breath left him as he glanced at her and then leaned over to rest his head against her stomach. He let out another breath then and she realized he was struggling not to cry.

"I'm not going to go anywhere." She promised and stroked her fingers through his hair as gently as she could manage. Trying to sooth him to the best of her ability.

In the end he did cry. For the first time in years. Rey realized she could not recall any other time he had ever cried except perhaps a few very rare times as a child when he had done something reckless and been hurt. He cried himself to sleep and her heart ached for him. Staying and holding him was all she could do, but she was glad that she could at least do that instead of going on blissfully ignorant while he suffered in silence.

As she herself felt sleep start to creep up on her she decided to worry about what she was going to do tomorrow. Tomorrow.

* * *

The early morning light shining into her eyes was the thing that woke her and for a moment she was entirely confused and unsure about where she was. She took note that he was still asleep. His expression was soft, defenseless. A harsh contrast to the sharp, unrelenting anger and hate that usually lingered there.

She reached out and very gently brushed his hair back from his eyes and he shifted a little and glanced at her for a moment or two, but his weariness showed as he inched closer to her and laid his head against her chest. It was the soothing sound of her heart that started to pull him back into sleep and she decided that she wanted to let him sleep. To recover from his exhaustion.

The door opened and that option was out the window.

"Damnit, kid your mother took time out of her busy schedule to make you breakfast the least you could do is come down and eat-" Han's voice trailed off as Ben quickly sat up and distanced himself from Rey. "What the hell are you doing, Ben?"

"He had a nightmare... I was just staying with him so he could sleep." Rey quickly spoke up to cover for him. She didn't know why she lied, but she had. She should have just told the truth about what happened to him.

"A nightmare?" Han shook his head in disbelief. "You're too old for this. Get up. Come downstairs and get breakfast."

Rey realized that Han did not believe him. She understood now why Ben would be so hesitant to tell them the truth. His parents always expected the worst out of him just like everyone else did.

Han lingered there for a moment or two before he turned and walked out. She had the worst feeling that he had some incorrect idea about this whole thing, but what could she do? He would never admit it out loud and if he did not then she could not come out and say it was nothing like what he thought otherwise she would sound guilty.

Ben was already getting up and in somewhat of a hurry. He had no desire to make this worse than it already was. It would be odd if he lingered wouldn't it? Rey moved off his bed and followed behind him. As he went down the stairs he did not skip a step like he usually did. A testament to how much pain he must be in from being beaten so badly.

"Good morning Ben." Leia greeted in her usual kind tone.

She glanced up at her aunt and weighed her options. Leia was so loving and caring she would never turn her back on Ben. Not like Han. No. Han had his virtues, but he just didn't know how to handle some things without losing his temper. No wonder Ben had a temper when he couldn't cope. He got it from Han. Though unlike Han he may take it a step further and actually break things.

"Good morning..." Ben trailed and glanced at the table, but he didn't sit down. He just stared at his seat and Rey inwardly grimaced when she put together why he didn't feel like sitting down.

Leia turned and put the plates on the table and then she glanced up at her son and her expression turned to that of surprise.

"Ben... what happened to your face?" Leia stepped around the table and approached him, reaching up a hand to gently caress the dark purple blotch around his eye.

"Mom..." He turned his face just out of reach. "It was just an accident."

"An accident involving Hux?" Han asked, looking up from his newspaper.

But Ben did not answer and neither of his parents bothered to press the issue any further. It was left in uncomfortable silence. So Rey decided to speak up. Put her plan into motion.

"Oh. I wanted to ask... Finn and Poe invited us to the lake... I was wondering if it would be alright for Ben and I to go for the weekend?"

There was a long silence and Han and Leia gave one another a glance.

"I don't think it's such a good idea." Han spoke up.

"You never think anything's a good idea." Ben muttered in irritation and Han stood up, setting the paper aside.

"Now look here, Ben I've had about enough of your attitude. You're an adult now and it's high time you shape up and start showing me a little respect. Who pays the bills around here?"

"Han!" Leia tried to step in, but it hardly counted. They seemed to not even hear her. Rey knew that if she said something it would be the same.

"Mom does!" Ben responded and Han slammed a hand down on the table. "It's not like you would know anything about responsibility you leave the second things get hard!"

In the corner Chewie lowered his head and watched the two of them with a low whine of displeasure. He took one step forward and glanced between his master and his boy with a deep inner conflict.

"Listen to you! I didn't raise you to turn out like your good for nothing grandfather. Wasting your life away causing trouble until you end up in prison!"

That was it. The snapping of the final cord and Ben drew back a fist and struck Han across the face and Han at his age was no match for such a blow and stumbled back, fell into the chair and onto the floor and Chewie reacted out of instinct and leapt at Ben.

The massive Irish Setter growled and snarled and sank his fangs into Ben's side and took him to the floor. It all happened so fast nobody had much time to react. Leia was at Han's side when he went down and Han was now reaching out for Chewie's collar to stop the attack.

"Chewie! No! Stop!" Han snatched him by the collar and pulled back hard and Chewie still struggled to get at Ben. Han hurried Chewie outside into the backyard where he could not do any more damage.

"Ben, are you alright?" Leia moved closer to check and Ben quickly inched away from her, kept her at a safe distance and Leia withdrew with a displeased look on her face.

"I'll help him." Rey said and realized that again she had covered for him when she should have just let Leia raise his shirt and see the extent of bruising all over his body. It would make her question. Think twice about what was going on.

"I don't need anyone's help." Ben ground out behind gritted teeth.

"Go." Leia said suddenly. "Pack your bags and go. You and your father need time apart. Go with Rey and her friends. You can't be here right now. I'll arrange for your grandmother's lake house to be cleared out for you to stay in. You can leave tomorrow."

It took a few moments for the words to register through the pain, but then he realized exactly what his mother meant. She was kicking him out. He was no longer allowed to stay with his parents.

"I get it... I'm going..." He forced himself up and didn't even bother to look back at them.

"Rey... watch after him please?" Leia requested. It was clear that she took no pleasure in this but she knew that she had to put space between them or things would only grow worse.

"I'm trying..." Again she found herself torn as to what to do. She could tell Leia the truth right now and that would stop this whole thing right? But... if she did that it still didn't change the strained relationships. It would make it harder on him. It might be better for him to have his own space.

"What's wrong, Rey?" Leia could detect the distress on her face it seemed.

"Nothing. I'll go help Ben." She hurried away to avoid further questioning. It wasn't going to do any good. Not now.

Leia sighed to herself and wondered what she was going to do with the two of them. They were both acting strange now. She hoped that Han wasn't right in his assumption of something inappropriate being the case. Luke would be very upset. Still she wanted to have more faith in her son than that.

Rey pushed his door open and found that he'd already tossed everything carelessly into a suitcase. The rage radiating off him seemed to reach her at even this distance and she was hesitant to approach him. For once she didn't blame him for being angry. The pressure and stress he was under would make anyone snap under these conditions.

Without a word she slowly approached and grabbed the clothes from the suit case and set them aside. Nothing was going to fit the way he was tossing it in so she started to carefully fold everything for him and place it neatly inside. She noticed he stopped what he was doing and glanced at her. Whatever anger had been in his gaze softened if just a little.

"Thank you..." His voice sounded so small it made her heart ache. He was really hurt from everything that had been thrown at him. Leia was right of course. He and Han would never get along and he had to be separated from him, but it was unfair that he had to fight through years of abuse alone.

"Poe said he's going to cook for us. You know how good of a cook he is." Rey changed the subject. "It will fun. Just like old times."

"Yeah..." He responded slowly.

"Finn said he has a surprise. I don't know what it is yet, but knowing him it will be interesting. To say the least."

"They don't like me."

Rey stopped mid fold and glanced at him. "Yes, they do."

"They don't."

"Just give them a chance. I really think you could be good friends."

"Alright... I'll try..." Though he had doubts he would give it a chance at her request. He grabbed one of his shirts and started to fold her because he didn't want her to have to take care of everything for him as if he was a child.

"I promise you won't regret it." Rey said and he glanced at her a moment.

"Ben!" Leia's voice called and he let out a deep sigh.

"What?" He raised his voice enough that he was sure she'd be able to hear and then when he was met with silence he narrowed his eyes. "What, mom?!"

Still silence and he threw his hands up. Rey pressed a hand over her mouth to suppress a laugh as he left the room. Some small things being normal like this... she missed that, but she knew nothing would ever be normal again and her lighter mood started to sink. She returned to folding his clothes for him in preparation for their trip tomorrow. If she could just get him away from this place everything would be at least a little bit better.

* * *

That next morning Han did not show up to even say goodbye. Ben pretended that it didn't bother him. Always acted like he hated Han, but she knew that it was just another one of his ruses. She wished that Han would have at least seen him off, but he had run off again once things had gotten difficult.

"Hurry up, kid. I want to get out of this house." Ben commented as he passed her door and went straight down the stairs, skipping a step.

"I'm fine... don't help or anything..." She muttered to herself as she picked up her bag and followed after him, excluding the step skipping. There at the door Leia was seeing him off and of course dragging his large frame down for a kiss on the cheek which he promptly wiped at with a sleeve.

It must have hurt his pride as a man because he turned and walked out with his shoulders lowered in defeat. She made to follow him, but Leia stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Rey... if there's anything going on... you know you can talk to me?" The tone was one that was dead serious and Rey knew that Leia suspected something was going on. She doubted that her aunt had even the faintest clue the depths of the problem.

For a moment Rey considered telling her. She considered handing her phone over the with damning photo she took, but Ben had begged her not to and she knew that now would be a bad time. She didn't really have enough evidence on Snoke for anything to even happen to him. It was the word of a very powerful teacher over that of two teenagers.

"I have everything under control. I'm going to help him." Rey promised and Leia sighed.

"Alright."

As she headed out to the car and put her bag in the backseat she wondered if she was even doing the right thing. Was she just too young and stupid to handle this sort of thing in the right way? It worried her that she wasn't going to help and was going to make it worse.

With a sigh she got into the passenger side and waited... and waited and he didn't start the car or do anything, just turned towards her expectantly.

"What?"

"What are you five? Do I have to do everything for you?" He leaned over towards her and she tensed up, not sure what he was doing before he grabbed her seat belt and pulled it on.

"Or... you could have just asked..." It seemed he was being difficult again. "Why are you mad? I didn't tell her anything."

Instead of saying anything he gave her a brief glance as he started the car and pulled out of the driveway. The silence made it an awkward drive. She wanted to talk about something, anything or at the very least put some music on, but she didn't dare. It was times like these that she didn't know what was going to set him off.

He glanced towards a house and grimaced. "Hopefully he isn't home..."

Rey turned her attention towards the house they passed and took in everything. It looked so normal in a normal neighborhood. A white house, a white picket fence and a yard of carefully tended flowers, but then again she wasn't sure what she expected. A shoddy, broken down house from a horror movie?

"It looks so normal for a pedophile." She breathed under her breath and he raised a brow and shot her a look. "What? That's what he is."

"What am I then?"

"You're a-" Rey cut herself off before she said the word 'victim' because that word was hardly fair. Calling him a victim would be the same thing as calling him dead, but he wasn't dead he was someone having to survive through a horrible ordeal.

"No. Finish what you were going to say."

"I was just..."

"What? Do you think I'm a pedophile?"

"No!" She wasn't sure why he was suggesting that and then she leaned her head back against the seat with a groan as she realized it. He was referring to the other night. "Why are you bringing that up?"

"Isn't it the same thing?"

"It's not. Snoke is... he's... sixty years old. And it isn't like you held me down and forced me to do anything. You just..." She wondered how to phrase it. "you were being... weird."

"Okay..." He responded slowly.

"...did you... were... you..." This was another subject she didn't know how to approach, but he was still waiting for her to finish. As she started to draw the words together she grimaced at how she knew they would sound. "you want to have sex with me?"

He snorted and laughed a little. "No."

She knew she should have felt relieved, but all she felt was the way her face heated with embarrassment that she brought this up and turned out to be completely wrong.

"Well then what were you doing?!"

"Not sex." He answered and glanced at her a moment. "I wasn't going to do anything to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you, alright?"

"Hurt me?" Now she was completely confused. What was he on about? "are you trying to say that it hurts?"

"It does hurt."

"It-..." Rey winced a little as she tried not to think about what he had to have gone through to come to such a conclusion. His views on it were twisted and warped if he thought it was only a painful thing that he never wanted to experience again. "It's not even the same thing."

"I know doesn't work the same, but it would still hurt." His voice came across so certain that it shocked her.

"It's not supposed to hurt." She couldn't believe he was so set on that.

"Well it does."

"What then? Are you saying you would if it didn't?" She questioned, but he didn't answer. The conversation was over. He had nothing left to say to her on the subject it seemed. She wondered if he was ever going to be able to have a normal relationship with anyone now. "It's not fair..."

"What?"

"The way things turned out for you... it isn't fair. You should be getting ready for college with friends and you should be in a normal relationship. You should be happy."

"Life isn't fair, but it won't do me any good if I cry about it." After that he was silent as he took note that they were finally out of the town. For some time he didn't say any more, but there was a thought that bothered him he had to ask. "Who did you sleep with?"

"...excuse me?" Rey raised a brow at his question.

"Was it Finn?"

"You think I slept with Finn?" The question was outrageous and she wondered where he had come up with it.

"Did you?" He asked, hands tightening around the steering wheel to the point she could see his knuckles go white and she wondered how it hadn't snapped under such a strength.

She shouldn't answer him. Not when he had that tone, but the last thing she needed was him being angry at Finn for having done absolutely nothing wrong. Even if they had it wasn't really his business and she wasn't sure why he thought it was.

"Finn... is... he's with Poe..."

"He's what?" He shook his head. "I thought you liked Finn. You talked about him a lot when you took fencing together."

To that she could not lie and her silence gave her away. She had liked Finn. Had being the operative word here. Anything she might have felt for him had left when he and Poe got together. Surprisingly there had been no heartbreak. She only found herself happy her friends were happy.

"We used to take fencing together... before you had your falling out with my father." She felt his gaze on her, but she didn't look at him. "Was it because of Snoke?"

This time he didn't give an answer and she already knew that it was the truth.

"So you've never slept with anyone and you act like you know what it's like." He turned down the road into the woods and she knew their grandparents old lake house wasn't far.

"Well I know it isn't supposed to hurt." And then she decided to bring up a point she never thought she would ever want to bring up or even think about. "If it was so bad Han and Leia certainly wouldn't spend so much time-"

"REY! You did not just bring my parents into this."

"I need some sort of example! They seem to enjoy it enough to be said example."

"Okay, okay! I get it." He groaned. "Oh... no... no... I envisioned it... I'm having flashbacks of walking in on them. Thanks a lot. It's horrible."

"I wouldn't know. I guess I'm lucky..." Rey couldn't really relate to walking in on one's parents. She had never known her mother. He gave her a glance out of the corner of his eye. Instead of saying anything he reached out and placed a hand over hers. He knew her better than anyone and so he knew what was bothering her without her having to say it.

It was the first real affection she had received from him since they were children. She brought her other hand over to place it on top of his. His hands were large and warm and made hers seem so small. His knuckles were scarred. From fighting if she had to take a guess. What a sad life. She lightly traced her fingertips over the scars on his hand and caught the brief look he shot her way, but he didn't have anything to say about it if he was opposed to her touch.

He only pulled away from her when they arrived at their destination and he pulled into the driveway. It was exactly how she remembered it from childhood. Except their grandparents would not be there to welcome them. It was a heart breaking realization, but it was how it was.

She stayed for a few moments longer looking up at it with nostalgia and then un-clipped her seat belt and exited the car. Before she could get her bag he grabbed it out of the back and headed straight into the house without a word. It made her wonder how he felt being back her with the absence of his grandfather. Ben had loved Anakin so much and it had really taken a toll on him.

In her hurry to follow him inside she nearly ran into his back when he came to an abrupt stop in the doorway.

"Which room do you want?" He asked.

"Oh. I... our old room?"

It was his strange attitude that gave him away. Something was bothering him. She wondered if she would be able to get it out of him. It was so hard to find out the things that were bothering him because he never wanted to open up.

He carried the bag to the room and set it on the bed and brushed past her to pick out which room he wanted to stay in. That was the end of their interaction. She didn't see him for the rest of the day. It was only when it grew dark did and she made something for them to eat did she dare to approach the room he'd picked. He had picked their grandparents room like a scared child crawling into his parent's bed.

Knocking several times did not result in an answer. She waited a bit longer and when he still did not answer she opened the door and stepped inside. His lights were off and he was asleep, curled up on his side.

"Ben... I made us dinner... if you're hungry..." She tried carefully, but she still had no answer from him and it made her grow nervous. She reached for the lamp on the nightstand and flicked it on and then placed a hand at his shoulder to shake him a bit, but still even this did not wake him. "Hey... come on... Ben... wake up."

His phone buzzed on the nightstand and she turned towards it a bit startled and that was when she noticed the small orange bottle. She grabbed the bottle and held it under the light to try and read it. It wasn't possible for him to have taken the easy way out like this was it? He wouldn't do it right? Tilting the bottle over she read it carefully.

It was a sleep medication 'temazepam' and it had been prescribed to him by a doctor. It lessened her worry a bit, but despite that she reached over and placed her hand against his chest to search for a heartbeat. Make sure it was still there. She found it with relative ease and relaxed with a sigh. She grabbed his blanket and pulled it over him.

His phone went off yet again and she knew she should have ignored it, but instead of ignoring it like she should she picked it up and checked the message. There were about a dozen unread texts on his phone.

Snoke.

 _'I need to see you.'_ The first one read.

It progressive worsened and Rey grimaced at some very inappropriate sexts from the man about what he'd do to Ben and she had to look away and switch the messages.

 _'I'm going to give you five minutes to answer me. You're treading on thin ice.'_

 _'Don't fuck around with me. You're going to be sorry.'_

Rey glanced towards Ben and made sure he was still asleep and seeing that he was she took a deep breath and started to screenshot the messages and then proceeded to send the screenshots to her phone. From there she would send it to her email and then print it off. It was good evidence to catch this monster. With that she deleted both the screenshots and his messages so that Ben would not have to see them when he woke up. She could not let him go and meet with Snoke.

After she finished she carefully placed his phone back the exact way she had found it, turned off the light and hurried out of his room. It was her best option right now. She made up her mind. She was going to save him. She was the only one that could.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: So here is my next chapter. Things are going to take a turn for the... well... you'll find out. Since today is smut day of Reylo week I decided to upload this now. Also... I apologize if the smut is stupid/crappy because I am not good at writing that sort of thing.

* * *

The next morning Rey jumped when she heard the door open and turned towards that direction to find Ben slowly making his way into the kitchen, still looking groggy and tired. She suspected he had taken too high a dose last night.

"Poe and Finn will be here soon..." She informed and watched as he grabbed a glass and poured himself some water which he finished all of in one long drink. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." He rubbed his eyes briefly and set his glass aside as he turned and leaned back against the counter so he could face her. "I'm just tired."

"You slept for so long how could you be tired?" It then occurred to her that he spent most of his nights awake cleaning the blood from his clothing after the fights he was involved in. Of course he needed a lot of rest to catch up. she lifted herself to sit on the counter and wondered if he was suspicious about last night. If he had found out surely he would have come out in a rage that she would dare do such a thing, but it certainly did not look like he knew anything had even happened. "You know you can go back to bed if you'd like..."

"No." He answered slowly and eyed her wearily.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Mm." He shrugged and looked down at his hands and then off at some spot on the floor. "Rey, why did you and Uncle Luke leave?"

"You know why. The school stopped funding fencing... we had to find somewhere else so he could keep the job that he loved."

"Did you miss me?"

"Ben... what makes you think I didn't?"

He lifted his gaze enough to meet her eyes and his lips parted as if he were about to say something else, but whatever that might have been didn't come and instead he pushed himself off the counter and stepped closer, close enough that he brought his hand out and nearly touched her knee, but second thought it and placed it on the counter beside her instead.

"I missed you." He took another step forward and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. It surprised her beyond words that he would so openly show affection considering how closed off he had been these past years. She carefully brought her hands up and brought them around his shoulders. She couldn't remember the last time she had hugged him, but she was sure he hadn't been quite so big. He was a mass of muscel now and she could barely fit her arms around him. It made her feel small all of a sudden.

She wondered when he had gotten so big. When had he grown up? What was the moment in time that the little child had gone and the man had taken his place.

Those thoughts were cut off when he sighed quietly and she felt the warmth of his breath against her neck. He turned his face into her and she just barely felt his lips graze her skin. It wasn't as if he was trying to kiss her. All he had done was turn his face into her to get closer, but it had a strange effect on her. She dug her fingers into the thick material of his black hoodie and grasped a handful of it.

This did not go unnoticed by him. For just a moment he didn't move or do anything and then he brought his hand away from the counter and set it against her knee. She suddenly regretted wearing a skirt because she could feel all the warmth of his large hand against her bare skin. He turned his face into her a bit more and she was so sure he was going to do it. She was sure he was going to-

The door opened and she could not finish the thought.

"Rey?" It was Finn's voice.

He quickly jumped back from her and put a good distance between them and turned towards the counter so that his back was to her. It would do no good if Finn walked in on them. He would misunderstand, but then... he would have been right to misunderstand that. It was something that shouldn't have happened between cousins.

She pushed herself down from the counter and headed out to greet her friends, but she was surprised to find that Finn and Poe were not alone, but had brought three other people along with them.

"You're early." Rey said, taking a moment to clear her throat. Finn raised a brow at her and seemed to be carefully taking her apperance in. She hoped she wasn't as flushed as she felt, but going by his look she must be.

"Yeah..." Finn began. "Rey, these are some friends of ours. This is Ryan," Finn pointed to the taller of the two, a blond and then to the other darker haired man. "and Damian... and this..."

"This is Anita!" Poe cut in, wiggling his brows.

"It's nice to meet you." Rey put on a pleasant smile and then gave Finn a look. "Oh, I wanted to talk about dinner tonight... do you think you can help?"

"Sure." Finn said and started into the kitchen. Poe of course told his friends to make themselves at home and followed along. He was a master cook. Of course he had to come along to hear about dinner... though it was more likely he wanted to be close to Finn.

Upon arriving in the kitchen Rey noticed Ben was nowhere to be found. It seemed he vanished altogether. There was no trace of him other than his empty glass that he'd left behind.

"Why did you bring other people?" She asked. It was going to make Ben more uncomfortable she was sure. He did not like being around a lot of people. He'd always been a bit socially awkward.

"Well... we brought Anita along because we thought it might be helpful for... you know... Ben to see how a normal relationship works. It was Poe's idea really. I think he's right. If he sees how it is to be treated nicely by someone." Finn reasoned.

Rey bit her lip nervously. "You told Poe?"

"I had to. He's my boyfriend, Rey. You know he's good for a secrete."

"I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out that way."

"It's alright, Rey." Poe waved it off with a smile. "I get how hard this must be."

"I just... don't know if Ben will be interested..." Rey responded with unease. Not after the things that he had said in the car. He was ruined for a normal relationship.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. Should we have brought a man?" Finn asked suddenly and Rey's eyes widened at his words.

"I-..." She paused and glanced down. If she thought about it she really didn't know Ben's preference. There were just certain things that were still unknown to her. "I don't know..."

"No. He's straight. That's why I brought a girl." Poe responded, glancing down at his nails casually.

"How would you know?" Finn asked and Poe gave a sheepish smile. "You-..."

"Yeah. I hit on him. He didn't take it very well. It was before we met, Finn! Don't worry. There's no competition." Poe teased and Finn sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're the only one for me."

"You sound so cheesey." Finn tried to act mad, but he could never stay mad at Poe. Nobody could.

"But I'm your kind of cheesey."

Rey raised a brow and stared between the two of them. "Anyways... I'm going to let Ben know you're here."

She said it, but really it was just to get away from the two of them making love eyes at one another. Sometimes it was just more mushy than she could stand. Speaking of the devil she nearly ran into Ben in the hallway. It seemed he emerged from his lair.

"Who are the people?" It was his first question and she winced a little bit. He did not sound happy about it.

"Some friends of Poe and Finn. If they're friends of those two I'm sure they're nice." She reached out for his arm and he jerked away a bit. She lifted her gaze towards him and frowned a bit. So he was back to that. "Come on... let's just have fun..."

Fun.

It was what she said, but as the night went on it was far from fun. Despite the fact that Poe was cooking up his famous meal and Finn had brought alcohol to relax with she could tell how uncomfortable Ben was with this many people. Because he was uncomfortable she found herself equally uneasy.

As it turned out Ryan and Damian so they spent the entire time sitting together and conversing with Finn while Anita casually made her way over to Ben with her drink and purposely sat next to him. Rey found herself sitting on her own keeping an eye on Ben and Anita. She was worried about him.

Poe returned to the room with a couple of beers and tossed some to each one of them and then he noticed Rey on her own and made a point to sit next to her and hand her a beer of her own.

"What's the matter, Rey?" Poe asked and she shrugged a little as she watched Anita still attempting to talk to Ben.

"I just... don't know if this is a good idea." She answered, but for some reason there was more to it than just the fact that Ben was uncomfortable or the fact that she was worried he wouldn't like it because of what had been done to him. A sickening feeling in her stomach she couldn't quite place.

"Hey, he can always say no or... he could get lucky tonight and have a really good time. Who knows." Poe patted her shoulder and smiled for her. "I've got to check on dinner."

Rey sighed and glanced at the cold beer in her hands and decided to try it in hopes that it would help her relax when she opened it however she took note that the taste was not all too pleasant, but then she noticed Anita again attempting to warm up to Ben and she decided she really needed some more of this drink. The terrible taste was the price of relaxing she guessed and hopefully this feeling would go away if she drank some.

Anita casually set her hand on Ben's arm and he jerked away from her and moved a bit so he could sit further away from her. Rey grimaced. Every time he moved she unfortunately moved closer until he as at the edge of the couch with no further to go.

Ben buried his nose in his phone, keeping his attention fully there. It was when Anita leaned over and glanced at his phone that he sighed with exasperation and shut it down.

"Oh... I didn't know you were that type of guy..." Anita stated loud enough to make Rey wonder what exactly she had seen. Hopefully not a message from Snoke. That would be a disaster. It was when Anita thought nobody was looking and set her hand on his thigh that Rey felt her stomach do an uncomfortable flip. "Are you... learning... for a particular reason?"

"Yes." Ben answered. "But practice makes perfect."

For some reason Anita smiled at that response and Ben just crossed his arms over his chest and let her keep her hand where it was and leaned over to whisper something to her so that nobody else could hear did Rey realize this uncomfortable feeling was something much more. It was something akin to jealousy, but at the same time it hurt.

She still liked Ben. She realized this with a sense of dread. There was no doubt. She still liked him. These feelings had never gone away. It just took seeing him with someone like this that had made her realize it.

For some unfathomable reason she felt the tears beginning to blur her vision and she quickly tried to pull herself together and blink them away, but it was useless. She needed to get up and leave before someone saw. If someone saw her like this they were going to ask what was wrong and she would burst into tears she was sure of it.

She stood up suddenly. Too suddenly. She felt dizzy, lightheaded and she just barely managed to caught herself on the back of the chair she had been sitting in. What was wrong with her? Everything was going wrong suddenly.

"Rey?" Someone called her name and then she felt a hand on her arm and then another grabbing her chin and she found herself face to face with Ben. He leaned his face closer to hers and she leaned back away from him and would have fallen had he not had his hand around her arm. His face twisted up in irritation. "You let her drink?!"

"Whoa... relax..." Finn said.

"No! You shouldn't have let her drink!" Rey heard Ben's voice, but she still couldn't really tell what was going on. It was all so confusing. All she knew was she was suddenly very warm.

"She's a big girl." Poe's voice cut in.

"Are you kidding me?! She's just a kid! And you let her drink for the first time on an empty stomach?!" Ben sighed in irritation and slipped an arm around her waist to keep her standing and pulled her towards the kitchen. "No! Stay away."

She guessed that someone came over to help. Or tired to come over and help, but his snapping tone kept them away and suddenly she found herself in the kitchen alone with him. He turned and opened up the french doors that led outside and she felt a sudden rush of cold air and then he poured her a glass of water.

"Rey, drink this."

"It's cold..." She muttered and he sighed.

"I know sweetheart, but the cold is going to help you sober up. You need to drink." He offered the glass again and watched her take it and try her best to drink it. "All of it."

She pouted at him like a child, but obeyed and finished what was left in the glass and placed it on the table, but as she moved back she felt herself lose balance and start to fall from the chair and then nothing. She waited for the impact, but didn't hit the ground. Something had. The chair she realized. It would seem Ben had caught her before she hurt herself.

"I feel so weird..."

"Rey..." He wanted to scold her for having gotten herself drunk like this, but it would do no good. He pulled her close against his chest and realized that she was just too drunk. He was going to have to put her to bed and make her sleep it off. He felt her hands slide across his sides in an attempt to hold onto him.

"I'm sorry..."

"What?" He wondered what she was babbling on about or if she even knew what she was apologizing for. "For falling?"

"No..." She shook her head against his chest. "for leaving you... that... I didn't protect you from Snoke..."

"Mm." He stiffened at her words. "You're not to blame."

"I'm really sorry."

Ben sighed deeply and reached under her legs to lift her up into his arms to carry her into his room. This wasn't going anywhere. He had an interesting time getting the door open while trying to keep her from squirming out of his arms and falling to the ground, but he eventually managed it.

This night had certainly not turned out the way that anyone had planned it. He placed her on the bed and started to pull back, but she had her hands entangled in the fabric of his hoodie and she did not seem to be willing to let go. He reached for her hands and tried to pry her off, but she kept clutching onto him.

"You know you have a grip for someone who's drunk." He tried again, but he didn't want to accidentally hurt her so he leaned forward to try and reason with her. "Hey, let go. I need to leave."

"I don't want you to leave... don't go back out there..." She secured her grip on him and he frowned. "if you go back out you'll sleep with Anita right?"

"What? No." He leaned over a bit more and tried to get her off again, but it was tricky.

"I would rather you sleep with me."

Those were the words that made him freeze. He told himself it was just the alcohol, but then alcohol made you honest didn't it? Unless she was mistaking him for someone else. It was possible.

"Do you know who I am?" He almost wasn't sure she knew that this was her cousin she was talking to.

"I know you... I know you better than anyone..." She reached up with one hand and entangled her fingers in his hair to pull him closer. "I love you more than anyone."

"Rey..." He tried to set his voice in a warning tone, but it was far from that and she was so close, pulling him closer to her and his struggling did not help. She pulled him down far enough that her lips just grazed his and something made him close the rest of the space between them and press his mouth over hers with a suddenness that startled them both.

It wasn't sweet or nice or gentle, not on his part. No. Instead it was him desperately pressing himself against her and meeting this thing she started, but she did meet him with an equal fierceness... or tried. It was clear she had no idea she was doing and was just trying to learn from him. For a moment. Just for a moment he had lost all control of himself.

And then he snapped back into reality and separated himself from her, sat up and shook his head.

"No. No, no, no." He looked down at her and sighed in exasperation. "You're drunk. I can't... you need to rest. Please? Please get some sleep for me?"

"Only if you stay..." She was still holding him and he sighed yet again.

"Alright... just... don't touch me anywhere alright?" He reached over and pulled the blankets up around her and settled himself on the opposite side of the bed on top of the covers for good measure.

She turned into his side as laid on his back and stared up at the ceiling and it seemed that was enough for her because she fell asleep relatively quickly, leaving him to his own thoughts and distress. What had just happened? What had he allowed to happen? He could tell this was going to be a long night and the night was still very young.

* * *

Upon waking Rey hadn't the faintest idea where she was. It was very confusing to her and then slowly it started to come back to her, piece by piece. She recalled getting upset and drinking and then... the things she said to him... she pressed a hand over her mouth and this was one of those times that she wished she could disappear in a hole somewhere.

Or at the very least pull her blanket up over her head, but even that had abandoned her and slipped to the floor sometime during her sleep.

"So you want to sleep with me?" Ben's voice filtered through her thoughts and she cringed. Of course he had to be awake still. She wondered if she could pretend she was asleep, but her movement had sort of given her away. "You like me?"

"I'm sorry... I... drank so much and I..."

"You only had one beer, but... you had an empty stomach. Friendly advice... never drink on an empty stomach." He turned towards her and watched her back. "Do you like me, Rey?"

"You keep asking that..." She desperately wanted to change the subject. This was wrong. She couldn't like him. "How long was I asleep?"

"You fell asleep around eight. It's midnight now." He shifted closer to her. "You feel fine now?"

"...Define fine..." Rey responded uneasily.

"Did you mean the things you said?"

"Which part...?" It was another way of stalling and she paid attention to the way he pressed his lips together in a thin line and sat back away from her. It seemed that he gave up on trying to get the information out of her.

"Alright. I get it. You made a mistake."

His phone went off on the nightstand and she glanced over to realize that she was in his room. A sigh left him and he leaned over her to reach for his phone. That she knew would be a mistake. If it was Snoke then he was going learn of all those threats and leave immediately. She couldn't let that happen.

Reaching up she grabbed his arm to stop him.

"I meant it."

"What?"

"I meant every word of it..." She swallowed with some difficulty and gathered a fistful of his hoodie and pulled him closer. Her next words took every ounce of courage she had. "I want you to have sex with me."

He inhaled sharply and the let the breath out in a startled gasp. She felt the way his muscles tensed as he set a hand down on either side of her. He was searching her face, her eyes as slowly and carefully as possible. He searched for signs of discomfort or lies, but finding neither he pressed his mouth over hers.

Her mind was reeling now. He actually did it. He had actually kissed her. That meant one thing and one thing only. That his feelings were similar to hers. He tilted his head to the side and lightly trailed his tongue across her lips and she parted them just enough, felt his tongue press in just a little, just a faint tease with the tip of his tongue and then he drew back.

He placed a hand against her knee and pressed it down against the bed so that he could settle himself between her thighs. The hand against her knee he trailed up her thigh, tracing over her bare skin. Somehow though his touch didn't feel particularly sexual despite where it was. It felt more curious and exploring. Though it still stirred a sort of feeling she wasn't exactly familiar with. An awakening of sorts.

"You want me?" As he asked he pressed his hips into hers with a low exhale.

"I want you, Ben." She knew that she was in too deep. There was no way out, but she would be lying if she said that his touch and that motion hadn't felt good.

It was enough for him to place his other hand on her thigh and slid them up further, raising up her skirt further in the process. He leaned forward to run his tongue up from that space between her neck and shoulder to just behind her ear and punctuated with another rough press of his hips and a faint grunt.

That little sound from him did something to her that she had never felt before. It was just something about the way he took pleasure in it that excited her and she squeezed her thighs around his hips to try and tell him what she wanted. She needed something more, but she wasn't really sure what that was.

"Relax. I'll make you feel good." He pressed a little at her knee to get her to loosen up and she swallowed with some difficulty and tried relax as much as she could despite the nervousness she felt building.

He slid his hand even further up her thigh and then up into her underwear where he could press his fingers against her. Startled she sat up a little and he lifted his gaze towards her as he lightly rubbed his fingers against that place between her thighs that seemed to be the source of this current building frustration she felt.

"You're already wet. I hardly touched you..." The hand he had between her thighs increased in pressure and Rey shifted against it moaning softly. That soft little moan and urged him onward. Glancing down he continued to work his fingers against her until he slowly put more pressure and smoothly, easily slid a finger half way in.

There was a sound. A whimper and she realized that it had come from her in response. He urged her again to relax and then slowly started to work it deeper into her and then slowly out and back in. A slow, rhythmic pace. It stung just a little, but at the same time it felt good enough for her to know she wanted more.

"Please..." Her own voice coming out like that was surprising to her, but he seemed to understand what she needed when she rolled her hips into his hand, desperate for something more. He slipped out of her and then worked back into her slowly with a second finger. "Ah."

Despite herself she winced just a little and he paused.

"Does it hurt?" He asked and was afraid that if she said yes he would stop, but she also knew she was in no position to lie to him.

"It stings a little."

"You need to relax. You're still too tense. Are you sure you really want to do this?" Withdrawing his hand he rubbed his fingers together and glanced at them casually and just as casually placed them into his mouth then reached over with his other hand to the nightstand.

She immediately reached out for his arm to stop him.

"Wait... I don't want you to stop..." She was worried he was going to check his phone and all bets would be off, but he merely raised his brow at her and pulled away from her a bit. He opened the drawer instead of grabbing his phone and retrieved a bottle.

"I'm not stopping." He opened the bottle and poured a liberal amount into his hand and she tilted her head to the side as she eyed the clear lubricant.

"Why do you have that?"

"I didn't plan this if that's what you're thinking." Sniffing lightly he moved back up to her and grabbed the edge of her underwear and tugged them down just enough and then placed his soaked hand against her again. "This was for my own use."

Of course he still had particular needs that he needed to tend to. She shouldn't be so surprised, but that thought was out of her mind the moment he slipped his fingers back inside her with a particular ease and resumed the earlier rhythm she had herself convinced that it was the best feeling she'd ever felt, but this time he curled his fingers up and oh that was suddenly the best thing she had ever felt.

"Ben..." She breathed his name and grabbed his wrist and held onto it to keep him there as she instinctively pressed her hips into his hand. With each twist of his fingers inside she felt the heat inside start to burn hotter and she knew she needed it to keep going. "Don't stop."

"I'm not going to stop, sweetheart. Does it feel good?" He paid close attention to the exact things that made her squirm the most and focused on those motions.

"Yes..." She felt her breathing increase as he started to increase the rhythm of his hand.

"Yeah?" His own breathing increased as he shifted closer to her and pressed his fingers deep and hard with a building pace that had her hips responding and meeting each push. It made her whimper deep in her throat and the sound in turn made him lose what little control he had left so that he reached down with his unoccupied hand he rubbed at himself through his pants, desperate to get some sort of friction.

She tightened her grip on his wrist, sliding up his forearm and feeling something there flex with every thrust of his fingers. She whimpered and he removed them again, only to press back in accompanied by a third finger and she pressed her hips up into his hand for more of that sweet friction.

It was when he worked to press a third finger into her that she tensed around him and he could tell that what he had done had pushed her over that pleasant edge with a soft feminine moan that nearly did him in. He worked her through her end gently and then when she seemed to come down from the high he drew his hand away from her. Leaning closer he lightly pressed kisses against her cheek and down her jawline.

"Can I touch you?" She questioned and his body tensed up a little bit she tried to get a good look at his face, but it was near buried in her neck and impossible to gauge his reaction.

"You want to touch me?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure? I'm not too dirty for you after..."

"No." She sat up and placed her hands against his chest. It shocked her that he thought that way still when she already told him nothing had changed. She knew she had to prove to him that it didn't effect how she thought about him. "Can I?"

He drew back from her and reached up to shed his hoodie finally and she lowered her gaze to the scars drawn across his wrists. So that was why he wore that all the time. There was so much she still didn't know. She grabbed the shirt underneath and pulled it from his pants while he unbuckled his belt and opened his pants just enough.

"Here." He poured some more of the lubricant into his hand and then reached down to smooth it over himself with practiced ease. She held her breath and found that there was something particularly exciting about watching him touch himself like that. "You're sure?"

"Show me how?" Rey asked uneasily, because it wasn't as if it was something she knew how to do. He took her hand and pressed it down into his pants and used his hand to wrap hers around him. The moment she made contact with him he jerked his hips a little into her hand.

"Mm. Like this..." He urged and squeezed her hand tighter around him and showed her how to work her hand over him in a rhythm. She started to get the basics of what he needed and tried to keep up how he had showed her as he released her hand to allow her to move on her own though his hand did not stray far.

"Like this?"

"Yeah. Just like that..." He whispered, leaning into her neck to lightly bite at her throat. It brought another sound from her and she found that any sound she made only worked him up all the more. He started to press forward into her hand and then with a shuddering sigh he grabbed her hand yet again and tightened his grip over it and urged her to pick up the pace. "Rey... can I... I don't have anything to..."

"I do. It's safe. Please just do it..." She pleaded against his lips and as her lips parted to speak he pressed his mouth over hers, taking advantage to press his tongue in-between them.

With increasing breath he grabbed her skirt and pulled it down the rest of the way and helped her strip and he let out another breath as she tugged up his shirt and her nails scrapped lightly over his stomach while she helped him take it off.

Grabbing her by the wrist to pull her hand from him and quickly shoved his pants down and out of the way. There wasn't anything between them now. He didn't wait any longer and took himself in hand to press into her. He started in slowly, but so easily. She was so ready.

"Wait." She held her breath at the sudden intrusion. He was big, but she hardly expected less considering that every part of him was big. Of course it hurt just as he said it was going to and she had to press her hand against his stomach to halt his movement.

"Did I hurt you?"

"I just needed a minute... it's fine now."

Despite her words he still waited a few moments longer and then he decided to continue once he felt her relaxing more. Still despite the initial discomfort it felt good in it's own way and it was getting better with each new inch he pressed in. It just took some getting used to. With her hand where it was she could feel the flex of his muscles with each little movement and she was able to focus on that until the pain faded. It did fade.  
"Rey..." He shifted deeper and rolled his hips forward with a low pathetic groan. "You're so wet... so wet. You feel so good."

She found it a little surprising to hear him talk so much when he was usually very reserved and quiet, but then realized that this was the first time that he had sex with a woman. The first time he'd been on the receiving end of the pleasure. His previous experiences were not positive ones nor were they willing ones. It was hard to believe he was even doing this considering he thought it was such a negative thing. Though his stance may have just changed.

He drew out a little and pressed forward some more and with each move he manged to press inside deeper until he was all the way inside of her and then he started to draw out then pressed forward again and she groaned particularly loudly. It was indescribable in words, but rather explainable in actions. It was the way his hands were all over her now. At her sides, her breasts, her thighs and anywhere that he could manage to reach from his position.

It was in the way he gripped her thighs so tightly she was sure he would leave bruises, but it was alright. She had already torn his back apart with her nails. It was the way that he kissed her and the way that shared the same breath. No words. Only actions.

The sounds coming from her mouth and between her thighs concerned her that someone was going to hear them and come in here to find them out, but she couldn't bring herself to stop this even under that threat. He worked into her with a quicker pace, deeper and she brought a knee up to graze he side which aided in allowing him to sink inside her even deeper than she thought was possible and he brought his mouth back to hers with a faint sound of his own in response.

"Ben..." She breathed his name out and he brought a hand up and placed it over her mouth to silence her.

"Shhhh..." His movements stopped all together and for a moment she thought she might just die without him. He glanced up at the door for a moment and waited, but when nothing happened he resumed his pace with her, but for good measure kept his hand over her mouth so that nobody would hear. He circled his hips slowly and had to bite back a groan. "You don't know how good it feels..."

She reached up and held his hand over her mouth to try and muffle the sounds as she moaned loudly against it. He was right. She didn't want anyone to hear and come in here to interrupt. Nobody was going to understand. He brought his lips against her ear as he started to jerk his hips into hers without holding back.

"You're such a good girl... you feel so good." His movements grew even more erratic as he felt he tense around him again and then the way she reached up and dragged her nails down his ribs and dug them into his shoulder... that was it. The moment he couldn't hold himself back any longer and grunted loudly as he spilled inside of her and then worked through a few final instinctual motions that gradually slowed until he stilled and rested against her.

With a low exhale he lifted his head a bit and pressed kisses over her cheek and near the corner of her mouth and reached over the side of the bed and grabbed the fallen blanket to cover them both up with it's warmth. His affection warmed her heart and she wondered how anyone could ever want to willingly hurt him when deep down he was actually kind and caring behind those tall, thick walls he had built, but people never took time to look deeper than the surface.

They remained this way for the rest of the night. The party outside none the wiser.

* * *

Warmth. She found herself waking to warmth and then had time to recall all the things that had transpired that night. So much had happened in such a short amount of time and now she felt him resting against her back, felt his warm exhale as he shifted closer. For a moment she did nothing but relax into him and then her attention went to his phone.

Right. The messages.

She waited to see if he made any movements to indicate he was awake, but there was nothing and so she carefully started to reach out towards the desk. Almost. She could almost reach, but she was still too far. Grimacing Rey shifted forward a little bit, but this was a bad move because suddenly his arm was around her and he was pulling her against him.

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere..."

"Liar..." He drawled and sighed quietly. "Do you have to get up?"

"No... I guess not yet..." She turned to face him and watched the slow smile appear on his face at her words. It was so strange to see him like that. He actually looked happy. It had been years since she had witnessed a smile from him.

"Good... I just want to hold you a little longer..."

The frantic banging at the door interrupted and she didn't have time to react before Ben was already up and hurriedly finding a pair of pants to pull on so he could answer the door halfway decently. The irritation was clear in his harsh movements.

"What do you want!?" He asked upon opening the door half way and cutting off another round of knocking.

Finn stood there frozen and stared at the angry beast he'd awoken and wondered if he was about to wind up with some bruises and broken bones.

"I... I can't find Rey. She's not in her room."

"So?" Ben made to close the door but Finn took a risk and put his foot in it before he could.

"So she was drunk last night she could be in danger somewhere!" Finn was exasperated with him by this point and Rey felt bad that she couldn't let him know she was alright, but... if she said something then... Ben would be in a lot of trouble.

What do you want me to do about it? It's not my problem."

"She's your cousin don't you care even a little bit?! I knew you were an asshole, but I didn't think you were this much of one. I can't believe she cried over someone like you." Those words made him pause and glance towards her, but the door was mostly closed and Finn could not see what he was looking at. "I hope the reason you can't face me is because you're ashamed of yourself."

"Finn comeon... give him a break." Poe had stepped forward and decided to try and mediate the situation, but upon getting closer Poe stopped and raised his brow. It was the angry red scratch marks that caught his attention and Poe was the sort of guy that knew exactly what it meant. He smiled a little and nodded to himself for a job well done. "The guy obviously had a long night and I'm sure Rey is fine. He would be worried if he thought she wasn't."

Finn sighed and Ben glanced down immediately and rubbed a hand over his side to try and cover up the marks.

"So you had a fun night with Anita while Rey was missing that makes me feel better." Finn was still angry with him.

"Well I'm glad he could get away and have some fun." Poe cut in. "I'm sure Rey is in a bedroom sleeping it off."

"He's still a jerk."

The door opened to another room and Anita stepped out, stretching and then made her way off down the hall. Both Finn and Poe looked at her then at one another and finally at Ben. He nervously eyed the two of them.

"Oh." Poe rubbed the back of his head uneasily. "Finn... let's leave him alone."

"But what about Rey?"

"I... think I know where she is."

That was the breaking point. Ben reached out and grabbed Poe by the collar of his shirt and jerked him forward.

This this moment Rey quickly grabbed her clothes and scrambled to try and get dressed so that she could break this up without bloodshed. Difficult to do quickly considering she was still sore from last night.

"Don't you dare say a word to anyone." Ben growled under his breath and Poe nodded.

"Let him go!" Finn grabbed at Ben's hand and tried to pry it off, but it was impossible.

"Stop! Stop..." Rey quickly grabbed Ben's arm and he glanced at her in surprise that she would give herself away like that.

"Rey what the hell?!" Finn asked as the three parted from their dispute thanks to her intervention.

"I know this looks bad..."

"Yes it does!"

"Lower your voice before I do it for you." Ben threatened and Finn gave him such a glare that if looks could kill...

"What did he do to you, Rey?" Finn asked.

"Nothing I didn't ask for..."

"I'm calling your dad." Finn stated.

"Finn! You can't!" Rey protested and reached for his phone as he started to pull it up to dial the familiar number.

"Yes, I can. Everyone else can see what a monster he is, Rey. Why can't you? Even his parents kicked him out and somehow you still can't see he's just using you?" Finn tried to get a call through, but being worried Rey reached for his hand and the phone slipped to the ground and hit so hard it shattered. "Rey!"

"I'm sorry... but you... I..." Rey tried to scramble for words because it was hard being at odds with her best friend like this, but he just didn't understand.

"Alright! I think we all need to go home..." Poe cut in. "This is not turning out."

"I'm not leave him alone with her."

It was a stalemate. Not a single one of them willing to budge, but in the end for fear of Finn telling her father she had to agree to return home with them. Ben drove and Finn wouldn't let her be alone with him again so he was also in the car and Poe followed behind in their car.

The ride home was far from pleasant, but at least agreeing to go home was enough to stop Finn from calling her father and telling him what had happened. Luckily Finn believed that if she was safe with Han and Leia he didn't need to call her father. She knew it was her safety he feared, but he was fearing the wrong person.

"I don't know what you were thinking..." Finn grumbled trying to get his phone back together, but it was useless. The phone was done for. He'd have to get a new one. "I need to barrow yours. My parents need to know I'm coming home early."

"I really a msorry, but you're looking at this the wrong way..." Rey handed him her phone from the back seat and sighed.

"The wrong way? You slept with a sociopath I don't think I'm looking at it the wrong way."

"I'd rather be a sociopath than a coward." Ben cut in and Finn shot a glare at him.

"I'm the coward? At least I didn't make sexual advances on my own cousin." Finn raised his gaze just as he noticed Ben tensing up, but as worried as he was he was about to earn himself a black eye he kept on. "Go ahead... hit me and prove that you're an asshole."

"Can we please not?" Rey pleaded with them. She didn't want to see them fighting especially not now. That was all that was needed. They both respected her enough to calm down and keep to themselves rather than to continue fighting. Even if they didn't like one another.

"Rey... how does your phone even work?" Finn sighed and tried to figure it out, but it was nothing like his own and then he made an 'oops' sound, but then his expression changed completely. "What the fuck? Ben is fucking Snoke!?"

Rey realized her mistake too late. She had not deleted the messages after sending them to her email and now Finn knew. Ben glanced over quickly and he quickly reached over.

"Give that to me!"

"No! Get off me!" Finn shifted against the window as Ben was trying to wrestle the phone from him, but that was the biggest mistake that could be made and the car started to swerve off the road and suddenly it hit the ditch and the next thing anyone knew the car was rolling over and slamming into a tree.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Here is the last and final chapter. Sorry for any spelling mistakes. I worked all through the night to make sure you guys got this epic final just in time for Christmas.

* * *

The very first thing she was aware of upon waking was the white light above her and then the white ceiling. Where was she? She could hardly remember anything let alone how she got here. Tilting her head to the side she noticed Leia sitting there in the chair across from her staring down at the phone in her hands. That was her phone.

The sight of her phone brought it all rushing back and Rey forced herself to sit up and the motion brought Leia's attention to her. She could tell from the look on Leia's face. She knew. She knew everything.

"Rey... how do you feel?" Leia's tone was far from the usual cheery tone that she greeted her with.

"That's... mine." Rey acknowledged the phone and Leia glanced down at it. "Did you... you know..."

"I know." Leia confirmed the worst. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I know I should have, but he found out first... and he begged me not to tell you... I thought that I could get enough proof and stop him myself... but then... the crash... it was all my fault... he saw it. They both did."

"It isn't your fault, Rey."

"Are they alright?"

"They're alive. Poe is with Finn right now."

Rey took notice that Leia did not confirm that they were alright. Only that they were alive. It gave her a bad feeling.

"What are you going to do now?" It brought up the question of what action would be taken.

"I'm going to contact the police once Han gets here. He's picking your father up from the airport." With that Leia slowly stood up. "I'm going to call him now and see how far they are. Are you going to be alright by yourself?"

"I'm fine..." Rey felt responsible for this. If she had just told Leia in the first place then maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe Leia could have solved this in a way that would have been much better.

Now her father was coming here as well. He must have dropped everything to return all the way here. She had also ruined her father's chances at finally achieving a life long dream and taking his team to the finals.

Everything was falling apart and she knew the only thing in that could make her feel alright was seeing Ben, but she wasn't sure where he was or if she would be allowed to see him. Still she had to try so she pushed the blankets aside and made her way to the door. It seemed that Leia was gone so she could leave, but the nurses might see her and that would be a problem. She was going to have to change her clothes if she wanted to get where she needed to go safely.

The closet was her first thought. She opened it up and just as she had hoped they had indeed placed her clothes inside. She hurriedly changed so that she could get out before anyone could stop her and then left her room. This place was far too big for her to have any hope at finding him by searching rooms. She would have to risk asking a nurse at the desk and hope that they did not notice anything.

With a pounding heart she approached the desk and hoped that this woman would not recognize her as a patient.

"Can I help you?"

"I was wondering what room Ben Solo was in..."

"Nobody other than family can see him now."

"I'm... I'm his cousin." Those words felt so hollow now. Like it did not mean the same thing that it used to. It didn't.

"Room 302."

It was all she needed. She counted the numbers as she made her way through the halls. She was lucky enough that there was little activity right now. It made getting there much easier, but she hesitated at the door. She wasn't sure what she was going to find when she stepped inside.

She took a few deep breaths and then pushed the door open and stepped inside. There was only one bed. He had the room to himself. It was probably for the best. He hated being around other people. Stepping further into the room she halted all further progress as the sight was not at all what she expected.

He was awake. Conscious, but the entire right side of his face was bandaged and she could only imagine what extensive damage there must be to have led to such a thing.

"Ben?" She carefully spoke his name and he jumped a little. It startled him. He hadn't been paying much attention to anything outside of his own thoughts and he had to turn his head to see her standing there considering the door was on his right side. A blind spot now. She wondered if it was permanent.

"What are you doing in here? You should be resting in your bed." He shifted in his bed and tried to get more comfortable... or at least as comfortable as one could be considering.

"I'm so sorry..."

"For what?"

"This is all my fault." She came closer and he huffed and glanced away from her.

"What are you stupid? I let go of the wheel. It's my fault."

"Are you angry with me?" That was the thing that was bothering her. She couldn't even make out his expression now that he'd turned his face from her.

"A little bit." He admitted and sat up as best as he could manage. It revealed to her that the bandages went all the way down to his shoulder. "That was the only reason you... so you could get that information..."

"No!" Her protest came out weaker than she had wanted it to, because it was partially true. A part of the reason she had done that was to keep him from seeing those messages and running back into that situation like she knew he would. "That... it wasn't the entire reason."

"It's fine... I never expected anyone wanted me for anything else."

"Ben, no. It's not that. Please..."

"Go home." He insisted suddenly and her breath caught in her throat. That tone was so empty, so void of emotion that she knew she had hurt him the most out of everyone. "Did you hear me? Go home."

Rey quickly backed out of the room and disappeared, leaving him to rest the uninjured side of his face in his hand with a low groan. It was more painful than he had thought it was going to be. The sound of faint applauds came from behind the door and he glanced up to the figure that stepped out from behind it.

"Well done. I thought I'd have to kill your precious little girl. You're a convincing actor."

"It wasn't all acting... but I did what you wanted so leave her out of this, Hux." It was a demand, bordering on a plea.

"She's already involved. Your actions will decide if she lives." Hux flicked the knife shut and approached the bed.

"Your father is a police officer. If he knew you were dealing drugs for Snoke I wonder what he would say..." Knowing he had no other choice, Ben had to make a risky move.

Hux brought his arm back and struck him in the injured side of his face, sending Ben's entire world spinning for several long moments.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Leave... her out of it... or I will tell him the moment I see him..."

Hux clenched his fists in anger, but he said nothing more and turned to leave abruptly. He had not gotten an answer out of him, but knowing Hux the fear of his father was enough to keep Rey safe. For now.

* * *

A week or so had passed since that night and Rey had not returned to the hospital since he had asked her to leave. She had briefly visited Finn to find he was doing quite well and recovering quickly. It was a relief, but he was still angry at Ben. He blamed him for the entire thing even though it was her fault. Still she knew something didn't feel right about the way Ben had been acting. She knew she had to try and speak with him again.

Sneaking out was easy enough. Leia, Han and her father were in the kitchen discussing the situation and they did not notice her go out the door. They must think she was still asleep in these early hours of the morning. She caught a bus to the hospital for lack of better options and she made her way straight up to his room.

The voice on the other side made her pause and she ducked against the side of the door. It had gotten her into trouble once to spy, but... she didn't know who he was speaking with at this hour. She risked a glance to see an older man with greying hair in a police uniform. She thought she could rest easy and that Ben was fine with a police officer.

It was the next words that caught her off guard. Officer Brendol Hux was far from kind.

"Listen. We might spend hundreds of hours on it. Right now it's nothing. I'll let you, you know, tell me the truth or... you do know that a false report is a felony?" The officer stated, glancing up at Ben from his pad of paper. "Do you have enough evidence to secure a conviction? If not you're wasting a lot of people's time."

"Do I?"

"Easy. Don't be a smart ass."

"Well I wouldn't have to be if you would actually be helpful instead of acting like I'm lying to you! Why would I lie about something like this? You think I want everyone to know what happened to me?"

"Easy. If you start yelling at me that sort of behavior is going to have to go into your report... you don't need another mark against you. You're already down for substance abuse. Another question I'm going to have to ask... is were you high when this happened?"

"No! I... no. This was before all of that..."

"Look. What you need to realize is that as it stands it's a "he said, he said" thing."

"You just... you don't understand." Ben breathed in absolute exasperation. "He took something I can never get back and if you're not going to do anything about it you're just enabling him to do it to someone else!"

"Are you really sure you want to do this? File this report? Because let's be honest here... men... they don't get raped. It doesn't happen. Big guy like you? No. You want to know what I think went down? I think you were failing in school and you saw a way out... so you took it. Now you're going to ruin a man's life and career because you screwed up and you need someone else to blame it on."

"Fuck you!"

"Alright. I'll tell you what I'm going to do Mr. Solo. I'm going to work to establish the facts in the case and track Mr. Snoke down for questioning, but if I were you... I wouldn't put myself through the humiliation." Officer Hux flipped the notepad closed and stepped out of the room.

Rey was lucky enough that he was in such a hurry to leave that he didn't notice her. What things could he have to do that were better than doing his own job? She knew that after that she should not go in there, because he was going to now she was spying again, but he was going to need someone there with him.

She turned into the room and he glanced up, did a double take to make sure it was actually her. It was like he didn't expect to see her again. He probably didn't.

"Haven't you learned your lesson by now, kid? Stop spying on people."

"I wasn't trying to. Can't... you report him?"

"You heard him. My case is hopeless. They're not going to arrest Snoke... he's going to get away with it... and I'm going to be the one who's punished."

"But... the messages and..." Rey felt that everything she had done had been for nothing. It still wasn't enough. Snoke was just in too powerful a position. He couldn't be touched by the law. He was going to buy his way out.

"That's our justice system... helping victims every step of the way, huh?" If he was honest he just didn't care anymore. None of it mattered. Everyone at school was already going to blame him for this. He should probably just... end this all.

"He's not going to get away with it."

"Yes he is. I don't have enough evidence against him... and then... they're going to investigate... and they're going to find out about the drugs... and I'm going to prison... I'm going to drop the charges... this... it's more trouble than it's worth."

"You can't, Ben... you have to fight him. What you said earlier is right... he would just do it to other people."

"Well sorry if I don't exactly feel like losing the case then going to prison and getting gang banged alright?! Fuck!" He buried his face in his hand and groaned in despair. "This is why I didn't want anyone involved in this. I was going to leave after I graduated and forget all about this..."

She closed the door behind her and came around to sit in the chair next to his bed. He might not want her there, but she knew she couldn't just walk out on him when he was like this. Even if he was never going to forgive her for what she had done, but with a little sigh she realized that she had no right to stay here when he didn't want to see her.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"Do you want to?" He sighed. "It wasn't real for you, right?"

"I did it because I love you." It was hard for her to imagine what he must feel like if he thought he had been used again. "I've always loved you."

He turned to give a brief glance to her and his gaze softened considerably. If he had a weakness she was it. His mind wondered back to her words earlier and he realized that it was true. If he did nothing Snoke would only do it to more people. He grimaced at the thought of her being in that situation. In fact... if he didn't do something then Snoke most likely would go after her to get back at him.

"You're right." He suddenly sat up. "I have to stop him."

"Ben?" She wasn't sure what to think of his sudden attitude change, but he was now moving to get out of the bed.

"I need your help... get me out of here..."

"You can't. You need to heal."

"I'm not going to get better if I stay here. Rey... Hux is coming to kill me... he's going to make it look like a suicide."

"What?" Rey almost couldn't believe it when she heard it. That sort of thing wasn't real. it only happened in movies right?

"I turned on Snoke... I'm a lose end. Now help me." He grimaced when he got out of bed and nearly fell. He hadn't expected the sudden pain when he put weight on his leg.

Rey quickly got up to help, but he had already moved away from the bed straight to the closet where his clothes were. Luckily enough for him they had been washed otherwise he'd have to go around in bloodstained clothing. It would make it hard to get out of here unnoticed.

Gathering up his clothes he disappeared into the bathroom. It took longer than she expected it would so she knew he was having a difficult time. She didn't now what to do at first, but then realized it shouldn't matter at this point. Not after the things that they had done. And nobody was going to be in here either.

With a sigh she made her way over to the door and glanced in at him. It seemed he was indeed having a hard time. He'd managed pants, but with the bandages down his right shoulder she could tell he couldn't mange his arm properly.

"Do you need help?"

"I..." He didn't want to accept help. He wanted to be independent and do everything on his own, but he knew that it was not possible under these circumstances. "Yeah..."

"Here." She helped him maneuver his injured arm into his sleeve and pulled the shirt on over his head. It was nearly impossible for him to do it alone.

Reaching up he unraveled the bandages that covered the side of his face while looking into the mirror, waiting to see how bad it was. The anticipation was bothering him, making him uneasy and as he pulled the last of the white wrapping away he frowned deeply. The scarring was worse than he thought.

"Is it terrible?" He asked quietly.

"No. I hardly notice." Rey glanced up at him and then brought a hand up to lightly trace her fingertips over his cheek just above the scar. Her fault. It was her fault. "Let's go home."

* * *

Leia sighed and pressed a hand over her eyes as she listened to the congressmen going on and on about important issues, but she could not bring herself to focus on what he was saying. Her concerns were elsewhere.

It was when the door opened that her concerned appeared right in front of her and her expression quickly turned to shock.

"I need to call you back..." She quickly closed her phone. "Ben... what are you doing out of the hospital?"

He was silent and Rey glanced between the two of them as she realized that if he could manage Ben was going to not tell her a single thing, but Rey had enough of the lying. It had already created enough trouble.

"Hux was going to kill him." She said suddenly and she felt the sharp glare that Ben shot at her, but she knew she had to. Nothing else was going to solve this, but the truth.

"What?" Leia glanced searched both their faces thoroughly and came to the conclusion that it was indeed the truth. "Ben... just what have you gotten yourself into? You need to tell me everything."

"I..." He glanced down and tried his hardest to come up with an explanation, but he knew that nothing he could tell her was going to sound good. What he had done had ruined everything for them.

"Did you do it for grades?"

That next question from Leia startled the both of them and Rey heard the sudden, sharp inhale as Ben quickly lifted his head to meet his mother's gaze. Leia didn't trust him. There the stoic expression Ben usually wore when dealing with his family was gone and in it's place was impossible to miss hurt.

Without waiting for another word or answer he quickly turned and walked right back out the door to the car.

"That wasn't fair." Rey had never raised her voice to her aunt before nor had she ever had reason to, but this was just too much. "He never meant for any of it to happen... he only made a deal with that monster so that you and uncle Han wouldn't be disappoint in him again."

"Rey..." Leia sighed. "I don't know what to think anymore... he let it go on... what am I meant to think?"

"You can't blame him."

"You know I wasn't blaming him."

"Maybe I do, but he doesn't." Rey didn't really know if she believed Leia this time. Her words had sounded an awful lot like an accusation, but then Leia did not know how to handle this at all it was obvious.

"Rey, would you please get him to his room and make him rest?" Leia knew that he would not come at her request. She had to rely on her niece to help her son. It was hard to accept that as his mother she had been so helpless to save him.

Without a moments hesitation Rey turned and went straight to the car where he was sitting in the driver's seat. It must have taken him a bit to realize that he could not drive in his condition. It must have frustrated him to no end. She opened the door and sat in the passenger side, but for now she was silent. He needed time she knew.

Seconds ticked by that turned into minutes and then finally after what seemed like an eternity he briefly glanced over at her. The car was dark so she could just barely make out his face.

"I'm not going back." He kept his voice quiet, barely above a whisper.

"Just for tonight. You need your rest. You were the one hurt the worst in that accident. Finn has already recovered."

"Him... nothing permanent?" Regardless of the fact that he personally disliked Finn... he didn't want to be responsible for permanent damage.

"No. I checked on him during the weekend."

"Angry?" He asked then and she hesitated a moment.

"For various reasons..."

"He dislikes me. Be honest."

"... yeah..."

"The feeling is mutual then."

"I wish it wasn't." Rey sighed faintly. It was hard for her that the two people she loved were not getting along, but she didn't know if she could change it. All she could do was try and hope. "Are you going to come inside?"

"In a minute."

"Alright." She leaned over and pressed a kiss against the corner of his mouth, leaving him pleasantly surprised before she opened the door to leave, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. Realizing his intent she had to stop his attempt at kissing her immediately. "The light."

"Oh..." He realized exactly what she meant. It was dark a moment ago, but when she opened the door the light went on and if someone saw them they were both in trouble. They weren't supposed to be together. He released her and sat back in his seat.

"I'll see you inside." With that she left him to his thoughts.

He sighed quietly and rubbed a hand slowly along his face. It really hit him hard that he should not be doing this. She deserved so much better than what he could offer. He was ruined. Tainted. She should be with someone that she could actually got out in public with. Someone who she could hold hands with. Someone that could kiss her and not have to care if the world was watching. She deserved to be happy and he couldn't give her that.

The trial coming up was not going to help. All eyes were going to be on him. With a groan of despair he buried his face in his hands. It was all too much. He felt like the weight every last sin he committed was about to come crashing down over him... and it was.

* * *

"The Court has been informed that the jury has reached its verdicts in this case. At this time the Court will read the verdict. The verdict reads as follows: We, the jury, find the defendant Warren Snoke not guilty of First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct."

Those words felt like a hot knife straight to the gut for Ben. He barely held back the bile that he felt rising in his throat. Of course he knew that he never stood a chance against someone as powerful and rich as Snoke. The rich and powerful always got away with things because they were rich and powerful. Lowering his head he didn't dare look at the smug smile on Snoke's face.

He knew that Snoke was going to kill him now for his betrayal.

Han and Luke glanced at one another and without a word Luke stood and set a hand on Rey's shoulder, fully aware that his daughter was in equal shock as the rest of them.

"Rey... we're going home. No questions, no buts." He insisted.

As the room started to clear out Leia watched Snoke leave and quickly followed him out, Han in tow. She was not about to let this go without answers. She quickly stepped in front of the man and stopped him.

"Senator... what can I help you with?"

"The truth. I want the truth."

"The truth?" Snoke looked around as if he were considering this and then finally he smiled at her. "Alright. What shall I start with? How about the fact... that your son sobbed like a little bitch when I fucked him."

"You son of a bitch!" Han stepped forward, but Leia grabbed his arm before he could strike him. She knew that he couldn't. Not when Snoke had been cleared of the charges. It would be bad for everyone. She could not afford for Han to end up in jail right now.

"To top it off... he vomited all over my desk. Ruined a lot of my work." Snoke gave a triumphant smile as he had successfully upset them both. "But you know how it is... can't try me for the same thing twice. It was nice speaking with you Senator."

As he walked away Leia clenched her fists and glanced at her husband.

"Han... remember that party I canceled? I think we should reinstate it."

"What are you planning, Leia?"

"We'll talk about it in the car."

* * *

"The trial was rigged." Rey responded with distress, shifting the phone to rest on her shoulder as she glanced out the window when a car drove by. She was worried that it might be someone here to kill Ben, but it kept driving.

"I'm not surprised. The whole system is rigged. If they found out about the two of you he'd be in prison and on a sex offender list for the rest of his life..." Finn sighed.

"That's not fair... I asked him to..."

"No. It's not and it doesn't matter to them, but Rey... I wanted to try and help... I realized I was too harsh before... so I did some digging into Snoke." Finn informed. "I managed to hack into the school's computers. Ben didn't fail the test. Snoke changed the scores to make it look like he did all so that he could manipulate him into running drugs for him. That's not all. He's changed other people's scores. It isn't just Ben."

"Can you get that information to Leia?"

"Yeah. I can send it over." There was a moment of silence. "How is he?"

"Locked in his room... he hasn't been out in three days... and Leia rescheduled her annual Christmas party. A lot of officials are going to be there so I think she might be trying to start something."

"Knowing your aunt... I'm sure she has something up her sleeve to get back at that guy."

"I hope it works." Rey sighed and sat on her bed. "I think I'm going to go. Maybe try and get Ben to come out and eat something. He hasn't been eating since he locked himself up in there."

"Ben not eating? The guy eats like a horse!" Poe's voice cut in from the background. "Rey, you get some food in that boy."

"...hi Poe..." Of course she shouldn't be so surprised he was at Finn's house. "Goodbye Poe. Goodbye Finn."

There was a faint argument on the other end before they said their goodbyes. It seemed Finn didn't want her to know what he had been up to this evening, but it was fairly obvious. She realized though that Finn and Poe were in the same position. They too could not let anyone know about their relationship.

Maybe that was why Finn had a complete turn around. He recognized that fact as well. Poe was the one that was really the most open to it. Strange as it might be. She guessed maybe it was because they had been friends once and if anyone knew Ben well it was Poe. They spent their school years together were as she had left before she ever made it close to high school here. Though something must have changed in high school because they weren't really friend anymore. She wondered what that exact moment might have been.

With a sigh he shook her head. It was all too much and it wasn't even her that had to deal with the heaviest of repercussions. She had no idea how Ben was dealing with all of this, but she knew that she had to try and get him to open up. If he didn't talk about how he was feeling it would just start to build and build.

That in mind she left her room and made her way straight to his door. The house was so incredibly quiet with everyone gone. Almost creepily so. She knocked lightly on the door and listened as it filled the silence.

It seemed like she waited for so long, so she tried again. She wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Are you going to answer? It's just me." She hoped maybe if he knew it was only her he would come out. Several more minutes of long silence and then the door did open partially.

"I know it's you. There's nobody else here." He leaned against the door-frame and heaved a heavy sigh.

It was his appearance that startled her the most. He looked absolutely terrible. From the startling pale of his skin right to the deep, dark circles under his eyes and the sweat that covered his face. He looked like death.

"Did you start using again? Ben... you were so close to being free of it..."

"It isn't as if Snoke is going to hand me anymore and what little I had is gone."

"That doesn't make it any better." She responded and watched the way his face twisted up in a grimace as if he was disgusted.

"Don't act like my parents lecturing me. I don't need it." His tone was much more hostile than she could ever remember it being with her and she took a step back. she needed to be careful with him if he was going through withdrawal.

"So that's why you've been hiding in here the past few days." She did not want to think that he had relapsed so badly, but it all made sense.

"I've been in here because I don't want to see them! They sit there and act like everyone else has. Like all of this was my fault. Like I wanted all of this. My mother accused me!" He gripped the door a little harder and she wondered how it was that the wood didn't splinter under the pressure. "I suffered for three years and they didn't do anything. They didn't notice anything. They just let it happen."

"Ben it isn't like that. How could they have known?"

"They should have!"

She was a little taken aback that he blamed his parents for not knowing what had happened, but they couldn't have known. She did understand to a certain degree. His change in attitude should have led them to investigate, but they were too busy with their own lives to notice. If that was the case everyone was to blame.

"It's my fault too then." At her words his hand slowly slid down the door until it was dropped back at his side.

"No."

"Why not? I didn't notice either... I'm just as guilty as they are." Rey knew she was pushing it with him.

"But you tried." He moved past her and left her standing there to let that sink in as he made his way downstairs.

Just as she was about to go after him he had already returned with a bottle of some sort of vodka and she let out a breath of frustration. When he stepped into his room he made to close the door but she pressed her hands against it and slipped her way in before he could. It was his turn to sigh.

"You're not shutting me out that easily." She wanted to get that drink away from him, but she suspected it'd be near impossible. "You don't need that..."

"Yeah I do." Knowing it would be impossible to get rid of her he dropped down onto the bed and opened up the bottle to take a long drink from it. There was no way he was going to surrender the bottle to her. It was the only thing that was going to make him feel better. Perhaps not physically, but... if it blurred everything out for a little while... that was good enough for him as temporary as it was.

"Then you're going to have to hare, because I'm not letting you drink the whole thing by yourself." If she couldn't get it away from him the least she could do was make sure he didn't drink the entire thing.

"No way. You remember what happened the last time you drank."

"I slept with you." Her words made him choke on the drink and he struggled to sit up while trying to cough up the burning liquid. "I wasn't complaining..."

"I..." With a sigh he relinquished the bottle over to her. "Not too much, alright?"

"That's a lot to ask coming from you." She had a hard time taking his command seriously when he was determined to drink the entire bottle on his own. The important thing was she got it away from him. For good measure she took a drink and turned to the window to try and hide the grimace. It was awful and she had no idea how he could stand this. The site that greeted her however was much more pleasant. "It's snowing."

Without a word he slowly stood up and made his way over to glance out the window. It brought back a lot of memories of childhood. Both pleasant and otherwise. He reached over her and snatched the bottle away, took one more drink before he set it on his desk and then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against him.

He held her for a moment or two and she decided not to say anything this time. It didn't feel like a time for words. Nothing would really be sufficient. She already knew what it was he wanted. What he needed. He needed her to stay there with him.

"Have you slept at all, Ben?"

"No." His weariness was evident in not only his appearance but his voice. He took a step back and dropped to sit on the bed where he could be comfortable and she moved to sit next to him. "How long will they be gone?"

"Leia is working and Han and my father are working on something."

"Awhile then." He acknowledged, but he was content in knowing that they would have plenty of time together. He wouldn't have to worry about things.

Another bout of silence and one thing led to another and this time it wasn't even the alcohol that led them into this. He suddenly leaned over and pressed his mouth over hers and pressed her back against the bed. She suddenly pressed her hands to his chest and stopped him.

"Wait, wait... you know this isn't why I came here right? That I'm not... only here for things like that... not like him..."

He paused for several long minutes and let out a faint sigh. It was hard for him to imagine someone wanting anything else from him, but her voice and her expression said everything he needed.

"I know..." Briefly licking his lips he glanced down. "Can I do something? I've... never... been able to do it for a woman... I'd prefer to..."

It took her some time to try and figure out what he could be talking about and then when he reached down to slip his fingers into her jeans and tug them down she guessed exactly what he meant. She didn't answer in words, because she wasn't sure how she felt about it, but if it was something he really wanted to do she wasn't going to protest.

She watched him toss them out of the way and then move down and the moment she felt his mouth on her she jumped a little and whimpered. It wasn't unpleasant, but it was strange. It was different from anything else they had done. She held her breath to try and quiet herself and wondered if he was really enjoying this or just being thorough.

Both. She decided when he let out a low groan against her. It was both. She entangled her fingers in his long, thick hair and relaxed. Although it had been awkward and strange at first it wasn't quite so now.

He stayed there awhile long until he finally couldn't contain himself anymore and he moved back up, shoved his pants down just enough and then pressed forward. She let out a long exhale and glanced between them. It felt a little impersonal that neither of them were fully undressed, but if someone came home early... it would be impossible to talk their way out of it.

This time was far different from the last. He was slow, took his time. Pressed his mouth against her ear and asked if it was alright. If she liked it. Little compliments on how good she felt. She came to realize it was a bit of a compulsion of his to keep asking if it felt good, because he was terrified of hurting her even still. He needed to know that she enjoyed it just as much as he did. An insecurity. A direct result of his particular sort of trauma. Despite this he took care to make sure her needs were met. He was far from selfish.

It was these moments that nothing else mattered. The problems didn't exist just for a little while. The night felt like it lasted forever and yet at the same time not long enough.

* * *

"Ben." Leia knocked at the door with a sigh and glanced at her watch. He still wasn't answering and she had been trying to get him out for a good twenty minutes. "You need to get ready."

The party was going to start in less than an hour and he was making things difficult. Rey glanced out from her room and Leia let out yet another sigh and set her hands on her hips as she continued to wait for some sort of answer. Finally the door opened and Ben appeared completely dressed if not a bit pale. Leia let out a breath of relief, because she had been worried he wouldn't even try.

"I'm ready. Don't get so worried. You should be more worried about Han. He's the lazy one."

"You're right... your father is the more difficult one. At least I can get you into a tux." Leia responded as she reached up to straighten his tie. A little messy, but he was still better at getting dressed than his father for these. "Speaking of... I better make sure he's dressed."

"You know he'll try and get out of it."

"Yes. By now I'm quite familiar with how he'll try and weasel his way out." Unfortunately the door bell rang and Leia knew she was out of time. "Ben just... check on your father... I'll get the door."

"Can I help?" Rey asked, finally leaving her room.

"Yes, actually. Make sure Ben doesn't strangle his father while I'm gone." Leia requested as she hurried downstairs to get the door.

"Unless... you want to be my accomplice and help me hide the body?" Ben asked the moment his mother was out of earshot. It was that dry sense of humor of his again. She wondered if that was a part of the reason he didn't get along with other people. They just didn't quite understand him. "I can handle it. You just help my mom. She look stressed already."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just go ahead. It's better to have no witness."

She rolled her eyes at him, but she decided that he could be adult enough to handle this small task. Especially when he knew this was so important to his mother that the party went well. Her reputation as senator relied on these get together.

People were gradually arriving. Important people. Top officials. She knew that she shouldn't worry, but she felt uncomfortable. They were all very judging. Any small mistake would bring a sort of shame to Leia and so she was trying to fake as much confidence as she could.

"Rey, how do I look?" She recognized her father's voice and turned to see him in a very fine suit for the occasion. It had been a long time since she had seen him so dressed up.

"You look very handsome, daddy." Though she did notice his tie was off and she sighed to herself. What was it with Skywalker men and tying ties? They were absolutely dreadful at it.

"Ah, there's Han." Luke stated as he and Ben came down stairs a few moments later. Luke headed over to Han and so did Leia.

"Han... we have a problem... I thought you had the drinks covered?" Leia started and Han threw his hands up.

"I completely forgot... here... I'll run out and get some and be back before anyone notices. You know nobody beats me when it comes to being quick." Han answered.

"That's for certain."

Luke covered his mouth and coughed to cover his smile and faint laughter. "I'll go with him. Make sure he doesn't get lost or run off on us without the drinks."

"Just hurry." Leia pressed.

Of course there was going to be something that went wrong. Rey wondered if Han didn't 'forget' the drinks on purpose so he could get out of mingling with the guests. Her father she expected better of, but he seemed to be jumping at the chance to run as well. Now... she even noticed Ben had disappeared. No wonder Leia was about to rip her hair out. These men were impossible.

"The guest of honor has arrived!" Poe called as he stepped in with a few gifts that he handed to Leia.

"Poe it's good to see you." Leia greeted and then Finn as well as she noticed him enter into the house. "Finn... you've recovered well?"

"Very. Thank you for asking." Finn responded. "I... uh I have something for you. Can we talk in private?"

Right. She almost forgot. Finn had uncovered information about Snoke that might help put him behind bars once and for all. Leia seemed surprised, but she and Finn left the room to find somewhere to talk. She hoped that the information he had recovered would be useful enough to put a stop to him. Now all she had to do was figure out where Ben had even gone and it wasn't hard to find him actually.

He found some spot in the corner, sat by himself and stared down into his drink. The Raucous party going on around him seemed to not touch him. Like looking through a glass that separated his reality from theirs. Nobody talked to him. Nobody noticed him. Rey realized that this was the reason that Snoke had chosen him. Because Ben didn't have friends. Snoke picked him because he was an outcast and he had nobody to turn to and ask for help.

"He's always been like that." Poe's voice came from behind her.

"I thought as much."

"Finn found a few more things on Snoke."

"I hope it's enough." Rey said quietly.

"It will be. It has to be." There was a short silence and Poe put a hand against her back and pushed her forward a bit. "Go over there so he's not alone."

"I can't... what if people think-"

"Rey... there's no way anybody is ever going to suspect anything. I'm going to get a drink. So go on."

From his corner he lifted his gaze and when he noticed her that particular sort of loneliness and sadness that was there shifted into something else. She couldn't quite recognize it whatever it was. She didn't get the chance to go over there when someone stepped in her way and by the time they passed he was already getting up and leaving the room.

It might not be a good idea, but she decided to follow him. He grabbed his long coat and headed outside. There were a few senator's kids. They were all standing around drinking and when he came through they stepped apart, surrounded him like a wolf might surround prey.

"You have the stuff." Ben asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"I've got it. You got the money?" The young man reached into his coat and pulled out a package and held it out and as Ben reached for it he retracted his hand suddenly. "Or would you rather fuck me for it?"

The other boys burst into laughter at the comment. It seemed that everyone knew about what had happened.

"Comeon Ben you knew it wouldn't be that easy. You narked on our man... and not only that you're planning to skip town? I'm not letting you get away that easily. You need a fix... you give me something a little better. You're known for it after all." This boy she didn't recognize waved a hand and his companions followed him as they headed back inside.

Here she was overhearing things she shouldn't again. It seemed Snoke's reach went a lot further then she expected. Was this entire town under his thumb?

"When are you going to stop spying on me?" Ben questioned as he stepped off the porch to sit on the step. Right. Of course he knew. He was probably learning to expect it by now.

"I thought you were going to stop?"

"I tried... I just... I just needed a little. I just want to forget what a fuck up I am." It was still hard for him to try and drop this habit. Near impossible. He didn't think he could do it. She knew that it was now or never.

"I... need to tell you something... Finn was digging into Snoke. He hacked his files somehow and he found some things. You never failed any of your tests... Snoke rigged it. He changed your scores. He did it to a lot of other people to." Rey thought that he needed to know the truth, but she hadn't been sure exactly how to bring that name up without him slipping into a dark place.

"What...?" His expression was of pure shock when she said it and he groaned quietly and buried his face in his hands. "No... no..."

"Ben... Finn found the dirt on him... he can... finally get justice. The year is starting over... you can start over..."

"I can't start over! This doesn't just go away!" He snapped and stood up, stepping the rest of the way down the stairs and heading out into the yard away from her. "I can't stay here anymore."

"You can't be serious."

"I'm serious." He stopped and turned around to face her. "I'm leaving this place. I'm not going to come back. I can't... live here... not anymore."

"You're going to leave me?"

"Rey..." He let out a sigh.

"You can't do that."

"I have to." His words made her feel like somebody had just died. A similar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"You can't just..."

"I can't what?"

"You can't just have sex with me and then leave like none of it meant anything to you." She insisted and then his expression changed and he quickly glanced over at the door and she followed his gaze.

The young man in glasses, stepping out to get air looked completely started. He sniffed lightly and took a quick breath from his inhaler. "What are you two doing?"

"Practice for a play, Winston." Ben said, completely deadpan. "But she's terrible at it. Give it up, Rey. You're never going to be a good actress."

"I... I'm not terrible at it..." Rey tried, surprised at how good he was at lying, but of course he was. He was so used to lying all the time.

"Well I for one think Rey is an excellent actress." Winston spoke up. "I was very convinced."

"Sure you were." Ben glanced off to the side, seemingly bored and Winston coughed a little bit. The three were left standing in an awkward situation, but it was covered at the very least and Winston was non-the-wiser.

* * *

A car slowly pulled up and Snoke stepped out of it, glancing at the car that was parked ahead of him. He reached into his car and grabbed his case out of it and approached them. One man stepped out and walked around the front of the car, but Snoke could not make him out with the headlights still blaring in his eyes as it was.

"I've brought what you've asked for. I certainly hope you have the cash." Snoke stated and then the lights shut off and he recognized the man before him. "Luke Skywalker. What could you possibly want with fifty pounds of cocaine and seventy pounds of heroin?"

"A prop if you will." Luke responded.

"Prop? Can a man like you even afford it?" Snoke asked, but before Snoke could further insult him a loud boom echoed across the lake and he was on the ground screaming in agony.

Han stepped out from the shadows and cocked the shotgun in his hands and took aim to blow out Snoke's other knee. Leaving him incapable of escape.

"You hurt my boy." Han stated with a voice full of emotion and Luke made his way around to the back of the car and got rope and a block of cement from the trunk.

"You... you'll... you'll never get away with this..." Snoke wheezed out.

Han kneeled next to him as Luke came over and tied him by the ankles to the cement block, making sure that the knot would not come lose.

"That's where you're wrong... you're a drug dealer. Did you over look that little fact? I know the game. I was there once. And this little deal? This little deal went very wrong for you... and that is exactly what the police reports will say." Han stood up and lifted Snoke while Luke picked up the block and they carried him over to the dock.

"You... stop! Please! I... I'll do anything!" Snoke pleaded as they got closer and closer to the water.

"Is that how my boy begged when you hurt him? The shoe is on the other foot now isn't it, Snoke?" Han asked and then nodded to Luke and they both tossed first the block and then Snoke into the water and watched as Snoke desperately tried to stay above water, but the heavy cement just pulled him straight down.

They stood there on the dock for sometime and watched until the bubbles no longer came to the surface. The freezing winter water and those wounds would leave no possible way for Snoke to survive.

Han pulled out his cellphone and made the call.

"Leia... it's done."

* * *

The clock struck midnight and the party goers were gone by now. A success in Leia's eyes. The biggest success. All of it had been arranged perfectly. The set up of Han faking another bout of forgetfulness... and keeping all the politicians and chef of police distracted. If there was one thing that was for sure... it was that nobody would hurt her family and get away with it. Not ever.

She gave a glance out the window at her son and Rey, both still sitting outside on the step and talking at great length. She decided to leave them be for now. Han and Luke would be here any minute with a mission accomplished.

* * *

"It's Christmas Eve." Rey stated softly, briefly rubbing at her eyes and trying to control the emotions that she felt inside of her. She had initially been so angry at him, but... she understood that he couldn't live here. Not when everyone here looked at him the way they did.

"Yeah." He glanced down at his hands. That meant it he would be leaving very soon. "You know we can't be together. You're too young... and me... my reputation is already bad. Sleeping with my cousin tops it all I think."

"It shouldn't matter."

"But it does. We would never be able to have a relationship... we would have to constantly hide it. I don't want you to have to live that way. You deserve someone that can love you properly."

"That's not fair, Ben."

"I know, sweetheart." He reached over for her hand and held it between his and then brought it to his mouth to press a kiss against it. It was too soon when he let go of her hand and sighed to himself. "It's time to go."

"Wait..." She grabbed the edges of his jacket so he couldn't go yet and kissed him, left him shocked and startled, but he returned it just as intensely. It would be the last time. It felt too soon when they parted. "I love you."

"I know... I love you too." With a heavy heart he pulled her hands away from his coat and stood up. She watched him walk away for the last time and when he got in his car and started it up it was a sort of finality. Despite herself she stood up, wanting to go to him, but he pulled out of the driveway and the car soon disappeared into the darkness.

She tried so hard to be strong but she broke down into sobs and brought her knees up to her chest where she could bury her face in them. When the door opened she quickly tried to stop, tried to wipe at her face.

"Rey..." Her father's familiar voice came from the door and she knew she had to try hard to stop her crying. "I saw."

"It's not... it isn't what it looks like."

"Rey." Luke's voice was stern and she knew then that it was pointless to keep lying. She was never very good at it.

"I slept with Ben..." She admitted and Luke let out a sigh and came to sit next to her on the step and put an arm around her. "You're not mad?"

"No, Rey. I'm not mad at you." Luke wasn't quite sure how he should feel about all of this, but Leia had not seemed to know either. "You love him?"

"Yes."

"He loves you?"

"Of course he does."

"I see." Luke glanced down the darkened road.

"He's gone. He isn't coming back."

"No. He isn't."

"I'm so sorry..." She breathed, unable to control the tears at this point.

"You don't need to be sorry, Rey. And you don't need to feel guilty either." Luke wanted her to feel better, but he wasn't sure really how.

"How can I not... I slept with my cousin... I embarrassed our entire family..."

"No. You haven't." Luke pulled out a cloth from his jacket for her tears and handed it to her to dry her face. "Some very famous individuals married their cousins. Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, H.G. Wells, Edgar Allen Poe... it isn't unheard of."

Rey laughed through her tears at her father's words. "It sounds like you're talking about marrying him when you put it that way."

"You slept with him." He reaffirmed and her expression changed.

"Are... you're not actually telling me to marry Ben are you?"

"You can't change what happened... your feelings are sincere... the summer house is on the boarder..." Luke stood up and helped her up with him. "and you're still on vacation."

* * *

 _ **Christmas Day**_

Finally arriving at the Lake house for the last and final time Ben grabbed his things from the car and stepped inside. His cellphone had been going off like crazy and he knew exactly who it was. Now that he was here and they couldn't stop him he answered it.

"Yes?" He had to turn his face away from the phone as his mother's scolding voice came through. She was beyond angry that he had left without a goodbye, but he knew if he tried she would have impeded him leaving. "I had to. I can't stay in that town. Not anymore."

He dropped his bags on the floor near the couch and made his way over to grab something from the fridge. He hadn't eaten and it had been a long night's drive.

"No. Try and understand..." He sighed and closed the door and tossed the bacon package onto the counter. "I'm trying to get clean... and start over. It isn't like you can't come over here and harass me anyways..."

Those words seemed to calm her down as she lowered her voice. It seemed that she understood and the fact that he was willing to visit with them made it all the better. It was a great relief on his part.

"Graduation? I'm just going to get a GED. I don't want to go back. Like I said... I can't be there anymore... and I can't go back to that school. What? No. I can still get a good job with it." He heard a car pull up and frowned a little. "Wait... I have to call you back."

He tossed the phone onto the counter and approached the window. He wasn't sure who could be here and briefly wondered if Snoke was here to kill him now that he was alone, but it wasn't nor was it Hux. It was Luke?

In utter confusion he stepped outside, fully intending to ask what Luke was doing here, but instead he noticed Rey exit the car.

"What are you doing here?"

"Everyone knows..." She answered uneasily as Luke opened the door and leaned on it while he stared seriously at Ben.

"I... it's all my fault you can't blame her." He quickly spoke up, but at Luke's expression he felt a sort of panic.

"It is your fault you little ass and you're going to pay for it." Luke responded. "You don't just sleep with a girl and leave. Didn't you learn anything from your mother or did it all go in one ear and out the other? She's yours until summer."

"I will pay for it I swear-wait what?" Ben quickly glanced between the two of them in confusion. There was no way he had heard it right was there?

Luke grabbed her bags from the car and set them in the driveway. "You heard right. She's your responsibility until school starts up again. You take care of her or else you might end up at the bottom of a lake."

Rey shot a look at her father and realized where Ben got his morbid dry sense of humor. She should have noticed it sooner. With those final words Luke winked at them and got back into the car to pull out the drive and leave him with no way out of owning up to his actions.

"He's kidding right? This is a big joke." Ben asked and then quickly made his way over to grab her things. It was too cold out here to stay.

"I thought he was at first too..."

"This is for real?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm babysitting you until summer?" He asked as he set her bags inside the door and then he felt a snowball hit him in the back of the head.

" _Excuse_ me? _Babysitting_?"

"Rey!" He scolded and turned to find her rolling another. The vengeance was strong in her for him daring to use that word. Before he got another warning she struck him right in the chest with it. "Ah! You're such a brat!"

He jumped over the railing and she quickly took a step back having not expected him to react like that, but he was right there in front of her before she could get any more ammo or get further away and he reached for her and grabbed her by the coat, but as she took another step they both slipped in the snow and came crashing down into a white mountain.

"Oh, get off..." Rey scolded. "You're heavy."

Despite falling awkwardly he laughed faintly and she found it infectious and she laughed a little as well. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and stared down at her for several long moments as he tried to comprehend everything. He was so sure everything had ended and that they were never going to see one another again, but for some reason that had not been the case.

"I have you all winter..." Bringing a hand up he lightly brushed the fallen strands of hair back from her face. "I couldn't ask for a better gift than to spend my time with you."

Leaning down he kissed her gently and she wrapped her arms around his neck to keep him close. These were the moments that made life worth living. Soft and tender moments that made all the bad a nothing more than a faded memory.

"I couldn't either." She breathed against his lips and he smiled faintly. "Merry Christmas, Ben."

"Merry Christmas, Rey."

This Christmas would forever be known as the year that his life had started anew and he had left the terrible darkness in the past. He would later learn that his tormentor had been found murdered. A drug deal gone wrong and that Hux had been busted for selling. By his own father no less. Soon enough that part of his life was far, far in the past even if things like that never quite left it had gotten much easier. He kicked his bad habit with Rey's help and support. And eventually... he would follow his grandfather's footsteps and get married in secrete. He learned that no matter how bad things seemed or no matter what one went through there was _**always** _ hope in the end.

If there was such thing as a fairy-tale happy ending then this was most certainly was theirs.

* * *

The End~


End file.
